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Farm   Students'  Review 

Devoted  to  Country  Life  Education 


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ot  the 

AGRICULTURAL  HIGH  SCHOOL 

at 
ST.  ANTHONY  PARK,  MINN. 


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E.W.MAJOR 

BREEDING  PLANTS  AND 
ANIMALS 


BY 

W.  M.  HAYS 

ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OE  AGRICULTURE 

Formerly  Professor  of  Agriculture 

University  of  Minnesota 


PUBLISHED  BY 

FARM  STUDENTS'  REVIEW 

ST.  ANTHONY  PARK,  MINN. 


Reprint  From  Breeders    Gazette,  IQ02-1Q04 

THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

MINNBAPOIvTS 


A- 


Main  U\  • 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  Farm  Students'  Review  in  publishing  in  book 
form  these   papers   by   Prof.    Willet   M.    Hays,   now 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture,  believes  it  is  doing  ^^  public  service,  as, 
well  as  undertaking  a  profitable  enterprise  for  itself. 
These   articles  published   in  discontinuous   parts  cov- 
ering   two    years    in    a    weekly    periodical,    have    not: 
had   a   fair   presentation   even   to  the   readers   of  the 
Breeders'  Gazette.     While  they  were  not  designed  to 
be  brought  together  in  a  book,  but  rather  became  a. 
part  of  a  rapidly  developing  subject  currently  discussed: 
in  the  periodical  mentioned,  they  give  in  an  emphatic 
way  many  of  the  theories  of  the  author.    The  body  of 
knowledge  he  gathered — ^after  commencing  investiga- 
tions in  animal  breeding,  but  using  many  plants  for  the- 
oretical experiments,  for  demonstrating  that  the  science 
of  breeding  can  be  developed,  and  for  the  addition  to 
wealth  of  the  State  and   Nation — is  here  better  ex- 
than  in  any  of  his  earlier  publications.     It  is  believed 
by  the  Farm  Students'  Review  that  breeders  of  ani- 
mals, breeders  of  plants,  scientists  who  are  studying 
related  problems,  and  students  in  agricultural  schools 
will  appreciate  these  papers  in  book  form.     The  price 
has  been  placed  low  for  a  book  of  this  size  and  char-- 
acter. 

Address : 

FARM  STUDENTS'  REVIEW, 

St.  Anthony  Park,  Minn. 


365777 


PREFACE  BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


The  author  of  these  papers,  which  were  pubHshed  in 
the  Breeders'  Gazette  in  1902  and  1904,  joins  with  the 
proprietor  of  that  paper,  Mr.  Alvin  Sanders,  in  giving 
to  the  Farm  Students'  Review  the  right  to  publish  them 
in  book  form.  They  were  not  written  with  any  thought 
of  their  repubHcation.  Some  revision  has  been  made 
to  make  clearer  the  text  and  to  better  adapt  it  to  new 
conditions.  The  deferred  plan  of  writing  a  contem- 
plated text  on  "Breeding,"  covering  the  laws  of  here- 
dity in  plants,  lower  animals  and  man,  and  the  prac- 
tice of  breeding,  on  account  of  present  lack  of  time 
has  caused  a  reluctant  agreement  to  the  publication 
of  these  articles.  No  other  apology  is  made  for  the 
form  of  the  articles  than  that  they  were  written  con- 
current with  publication  for  a  periodical.  Any  profits 
which  may  come  from  publishing  this  book  is  all  to 
accrue  to  the  Farm  Students'  Review,  the  agricultural 
college  paper  of  Minnesota,  the  author  and  the  first 
publisher  having  relinquished  all  rights.  It  is  hoped 
that  the  readers  of  these  notes  may  realize  that  the 
purpose  was  to  promote  an  interest  and  to  arouse  all 
to  begin  larger  efforts  to  improve  plants  and  animals, 
rather  than  to  write  a  scientifically  arranged  text.  And 
it  is  hoped  that  the  enterprising  college  paper  which 
has  undertaken  its  republication  may  profit  from  its 
sale. 

Sincerely, 

W.  M.  HAYS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

POSSIBILITIES   IN   PLANT  AND  ANIMAL  BREEDING. 

Five  billion  dollars'  worth  of  plant  and  animal  pro- 
ducts are  to  be  annually  produced  on  American  farms 
from  seeds  and  germs  which  may  be  so  improved  and 
selected  that  the  value  of  the  product  may  be  made  at 
least  five  per  cent,  more  valuable.  Five  per  cent,  of 
five  billion  is  a  quarter  of  one  billion.  In  other  words, 
if  the  American  people  can  change  the  heredity  of  the 
average  of  their  crops  and  domestic  animals  so  as  to 
increase  the  value  of  the  product  five  per  cent,  the  in- 
creased valuation  will  be  $250,000,000  annually,  or 
a  billion  dollars  more  every  four  years.  Much  in- 
crease is  now  actually  going  forward  under  present 
methods,  but  if  by  extensive  effort  under  scientific 
methods  of  breeding  an  additional  five  per  cent  be 
realized  the  cost  of  such  improvement  could  not  be- 
more  than  a  very  small  part  of  the  increased  produc- 
tion. We  have  no  just  conception  of  the  immense  eco- 
nomic value  of  the  occasional  plant  or  animal  which' 
becomes  the  chief  factor  in  an  improved. breed  or  va- 
riety, as  Messenger's  blood  became  the  foundation  of 
the  breed  of  trotting  horses. 

No  one  w^ll  doubt  but  that  five  per  cent,  could  be 
added  to  our  agricultural  income  by  better  methods 
of  farming  and  superior  management  of  live  stock. 
All  agree  that  time  spent  on  gaining  a  better  knowl- 
edge  of   farm   and   stock  management   and   a   better 


^   •»^,,-»  ,      o       -»    »      ^     "" 

4  .0  ,Bf0^edw^  'PlafiJts  and  Animals 

training  in  carrying  out  the  daily  routine  of  the  busi- 
ness of  the  farm  and  the  farm  home  would  pay  the 
American  farmers.  Our  colleges  of  agriculture  are 
slowly  but  surely  converting  the  farmers  of  this  coun- 
try to  the  idea  that  it  pays  to  send  boys  and  girls  who 
are  through  the  rural  primary  schools  to  practical 
schools  of  agriculture  for  their  secondary  course  in 
education.  And  nothing  is  more  true  than  that  the 
nation  and  the  States  can  well  afford  to  pay  millions 
of  dollars  annually  that  our  farmers  may  have  a  tech- 
nical education  in  agriculture  and  country  home-mak- 
ing and  a  better  general  training  in  citizenship.  Money 
thus  spent  not  only  helps  the  farmer's  sons  and  daugh- 
ters who  take  advantage  of  schools  of  agriculture,  but 
by  increasing  and  cheapening  the  cost  of  farm  pro- 
ducts, and  by  bettering  country  life,  all  the  people  of 
the  nation  receive  an  ample  return  for  the  expenditure. 
The  intricacies  of  financing,  equipping,  advertising  and 
governing  such  institutions;  of  experimental  research, 
of  writing  text  books,  and  of  developing  laboratory 
facilities  and  teaching,  on  the  part  of  teachers  and 
other  officials ;  and  of  study  of  text,  of  laboratory  prac- 
tice work,  of  examinations  and  of  individual  research 
on  the  part  of  students,  are  complex  almost  beyond 
measure.  Yet  the  presence  of  these  problems  enables 
us  to  comprehend  them  and  the  American  people  seem 
nearly  ready  to  establish  an  adequate  system  of  agri- 
cultural education  including  elementary  work  in  the 
consolidated  rural  schools,  practical  technology  in  agri- 
cultural high  schools,  in  many  cases  reorganized  into 
larger  units  as  consolidated  farm  schools ;  and  scien- 
tific technology  in  agricultural  collegiate  courses.  The 
people  have  seen  that  this  education  is  profitable 
and  they  propose  to  pay  the  price. 

The  improvement  of  animals  and  plants  by  breed- 
ing can  likewise  be  proved  and  made  to  seem  real.  No 
one  who  will  examine  existing  facts  will  doubt  that 
five  per  cent,  can  be  added  to  the  value  of  our  crops 


Possibilities.  5 

and  our  animals  by  the  application  of  science  and 
business  principles  to  the  practical  work  of  improving 
existing  breeds  and  varieties  and  of  forming,  new  ones. 
And  all  who  will  investigate  will  agree  that  if  such  an 
achievement  could  be  reached  millions  of  expenditure 
if  needed  would  be  justified.  Improvement  made  by 
breeding  our  crops  and  animals  differs  from  improve- 
ments through  education.  It  is  not  applied  directly  to 
the  irtiprovement  of  the  individual  man  or  woman.  It 
is  more  nearly  a  cold  business  proposition,  but  indi- 
rectly it  increases  the  means  with  which  people  can 
press  civilization  forward.  If  by  spending  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  in  breeding  plants  and  animals  the 
nation  can  create  annually  millions  of  dollars  more  of 
wealth  in  corn  and  cattle,  the  added  revenues  would 
support  many  schools  of  agriculture.  If  by  expending 
a  hundred  thousand  dollars  intelligently  employed  in 
studying  the  mere  science  of  breeding  animals  and 
plants  many  millions  annually  of  added  value  could 
be  produced  by  those  who  breed  animals  and  plants, 
money  could  thus  be  provided  with  which  to  educate 
all  classes.  If  improvements  in  plants  and  animals 
can  be  made  as  cheaply  as  known  facts  show,  there 
is  hardly  a  form  of  expenditure  from:  which  the 
nation  or  State  can  secure  such  large  proportionate 
returns  as  from  well-directed  efforts  in  plant  and 
animal  breeding. 

A  few  simple  results  from  extensive  research  in 
mechanics  and  electricity  gave  impulse  to  genius  which 
resulted  in  the  development  of  modern  steam  and  elec- 
trical transportation.  The  goal  in  view  in  variety 
and  breed  improvement  may  not  be  so  large  as  that 
represented  by  improved  forms  of  transportation,  but 
it  approaches  sufficiently  near  that  any  possible  cost 
of  needed  research  is  in  comparison  a  mere  bagatelle. 
In  mechanics  the  nation  found  in  rights  granted  under 
patent  laws  a  way  of  assuring  remuneration  for  in- 
ventors of  mechanical  devices.     Breeding  is  not  more 


6  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

difficult  than  invention,  but  plants  and  animals  cannot 
well  be  patented,  and  securing  remuneration  for  new 
creations  in  the  plant  and  animal  world  is  a  much  more 
difficult  business  proposition  than  securing  profits  from 
improvements  in  mechanics.  Society,  through  the  gen- 
eral government's  patent  law  regulations,  invests  vast 
sums  in  new  inventions,  thus  encouraging  invention. 
Society,  through  aid  to  national  and  State  experiment 
stations,  and  through  assistance  to  co-operating  agen- 
cies engaged  in  breeding  plants  and  animals,  and  to 
schools  where  breeding  is  taught,  can  stimulate  the 
production  of  improved  and  new  varieties  of  plants 
and  animals,  which  will  make  this  country  lead  the 
world  in  improved  seeds  and  breeding  stock,  as  it  now 
leads  in  transportation  and  mechanics. 

The  emphasis  is  shifting  in  breeding  from  some  of 
the  time-worn  principles  to  others  just  as  old,  but  more 
recently  brought  to  the  front.  Broad  business  policies 
are  gaining  recognition  where  general  theories  held 
sway.  Writers  of  the  theory  and  science  of  breeding 
are  giving  way  to  men  who  make  history  by  improving 
plants  and  animals.  The  current  writer  on  breeding 
problems  is  seeking  the  philosophy  which  is  actually 
producing  the  great  breeds  of  animals  and  the  new 
varieties  of  plants.  The  scientists  are  learning  to  re- 
soect  the  organizing  quaiuies  of  the  mind  of  Wallace, 
who  put  the  breeding  of  trotting  horses  on  a  scientific 
basis.  They  are  also  learning  to  value  the  far-seeing 
abilities  of  Burbank  in  his  matchless  work  in  plant 
breeding.  The  practical  breeders  of  plants  and  animals 
are  coming  to  see  the  profound  changes  produced  by 
breeders  of  fancy  and  pet  animals  and  of  ornamental 
plants.  Scientists  are  ready  to  study  more  earnestly 
the  philosophy  of  practical  breeding,  and  practical  men 
of  affairs  are  ready  to  put  into  operation  new^  theories 
found  to  be  of  practical  utility. 

No  apology  is  made  for  gladly  presenting  my  views 
and  experiences  in  these  subjects.  After  being  long  a 
breeder  and  a  teacher  oi  animal  breeding  a  part  of  my 


Possibilities.  7 

attention  was  turned  to  the  breeding  of  plants,  for  the 
purpose  of  studying  the  general  philosophy  of  breeding 
and  also  to  attempt  actually  to  produce  valuable  varieties 
of  the  important  field  crops.  In  fact  the  writer  entered 
upon  plant  breeding  quite  as  much  to  acquire  a  broad 
grasp  of  the  theory  of  animal  breeding  as  to  learn  to 
breed  plants,  and  actually  to  improve  the  value  per  acre 
of  Minnesota's  field  crops.  In  plants  it  was  found 
possible  to  deal  with  large  numbers  necessary  to  use 
in  experiments  on  the  theory  and  methods  of 
breeding.  Wheat  has  served  well  among  plants  for 
studying  some  of  the  questions  involved  in  methods 
of  breeding  and  for  getting  a  general  view  of  the  broad 
orinciples  wliich  govern  in  plant  and  animal  improve- 
ment. Flax,  corn,  alfalfa  and  other  crops  have  each 
taught  lessons,  and  they  promise  many  more.  Some 
plans,  more  or  less  new,  for  promoting  animal  breeding 
have  been  long  in  mind,  and  will  here  be  first  set  forth 
in  a  general  way.  It  is  the  desire  to  emphasize  the  value 
of  meritorious  pedigreed  blood ;  the  importance  of  re- 
search in  the  science  of  breeding ;  the  need  of  more  at- 
tention to  teaching  animal  and  plant  breeding ;  the  nec- 
essity of  using  large  numbers,  both  in  selecting  individ- 
uals and  in  testing  breeding  powers ;  the  closer  co-oper- 
ative organization  of  all  interested  in  breed  and  va- 
riety improvement;  and  the  expenditure  of  sums  of 
money  more  nearly  adequate  to  meet  the  difficulties 
and  to  produce  the  larger  values  which  are  possible  in 
improved  plants  and  animals.  None  will  get  more  of 
interest  or  instruction  out  of  whatever  "talking  back" 
may  be  aroused  by  these  articles,  whether  from  the  edi- 
torial chair  or  from  the  fraternity  of  breeders,  than 
will  the  writer. 

Below  are  formulated  some  general  propositions 
which  briefly  summarize  part  of  the  theories  and  con- 
ditions under  discussion: 

I.  Variation  exists  in  every  class,  breed  or  variety 
of  animals  or  plants,  a  few  being  far  below  the  aver- 


8  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

age,  the  majority  being  nearly  at  the  average,  and  a 
few  being  far  above  the  average. 

2.  Breeding  is  ordinarily  done  mainly  by  selecting 
the  small  per  cent,  which  are  above  the  average,  and 
improvements  come  surely  though  slowly. 

3.  Among  the  small  percentage  of  best  individuals 
variation  exists  as  to  their  prepotency  or  breeding 
power ;  some  being  poor,  the  many  nearly  average,  and 
a  few  excelling;  these  latter  bemg  a  very  small  per- 
centage of  the  entire  number  in  the  class,  breed  or 
variety. 

4.  By  choosing  for  parents  those  superior  indi- 
viduals having  especially  potent  blood,  the  breed  or 
variety  is  rapidly  improved. 

5.  The  great  problem  is  how  to  eliminate  the  many, 
and  having  found  the  few  proving  prepotent  in  trans- 
mitting highly  developed  and  effectively  correlated  in- 
trinsic qualities,  fully  emphasize  the  value  of  their 
blood  and  thus  cause  them  to  be  widely  propagated 
and  utilized. 

6.  Plans  for  breed  improvement  must  contemplate : 
(a)  the  use  of  immense  numbers  from  among  which 
to  select  many  superior  in  individuality,  (b)  the  testing 
of  the  breeding  power  of  each  of  those  selected,  and 
(c)  the  retention  of  the  blood  of  the  very  best  breeders 
for  the  improved  breed  or  variety. 

7.  It  is  easy  in  breeding  many  kinds  of  plants  to 
grow  many  individuals  so  that  each  plant  has  approxi- 
mately the  same  conditions  as  each  other  plant,  and 
the  small  percentage  of  the  best  plants  may  be  selected 
for  mother  plants. 

8.  It  is  likewise  easy  similarly  to  plant  a  large  "fra- 
ternity group''  of.  the  progeny  of  each  mother  plant, 
and  by  recording  the  value  of  the  average  plant  of 
each  group  have  comparisons  of  the  breeding  powers, 
the  projected  breeding  efficiency  of  the  respective 
mother  plants,  that  the  most  potent  blood  lines  may  be 
retained  as  the  improved  variety. 

9.  It  is  difficult  in  animal  breeding  to  grow  many 


Possibilities.         ^  9 

individuals  under  conditions  similar  for  each,  and  there- 
fore more  difficult  to  determine  which  mdividuals  excel, 
and  it  is  still  more  difficult  so  to  compare  the  breeding 
power  of  each  superior  individual  that  the  very  best 
in  this  characteristic  of  prepotency,  or  projected  breed- 
ing efficiency  may  be  chosen  as  the  basis  of  the  im- 
proved breed. 

10.  Organized  co-operation  among  animal  breeders, 
preferably  grouped  near  together  as  in  a  county,  is 
of  especial  significance,  that  the  individuality  of  many 
animals  of  the  same  breed  may  be  fairly  compared; 
also  that  the  breeding  power  or  prepotency  of  many  of 
these  superior  individuals  may  be  properly  recorded 
and  compared,  and  that  the  few  very  best  breeders  may 
be  mated  together  and  thus  made  the  basis  of  the  im- 
proved breed. 

11.  Pedigrees  representing  correlated  qualities  of 
intrinsic  worth,  showing  the  breed  or  variety  to  have 
high  practical  value,  should  be  so  faithfully  and  clearly 
constructed  that  the  animals  or  plants  they  relate  to 
may  be  so  accredited  for  intrinsic  merit  as  to  have  large 
commercial  importance  and  be  widely  used. 

12.  Business  methods  must  be  used  in  increasing, 
in  developing  to  superior  form,  and  in  finding  profitable 
markets  for  improved  blood  of  improved  stocks  of  ani- 
mals and  plants,  that  they  may  be  more  widely  used  to 
supplant  poorer  forms  now  used  in  general  production. 
In  other  words  we  need  better  pedigrees,  and  we  need 
them'  better  exploited,  so  that  the  blood  they  represent 
will  be  in  better  demand. 

13.  The  people  have  here  important  interests  at 
stake,  and  should  recognize  that,  through  the  govern- 
ment of  the  nation,  state  or  county,  tbey  could  properly 
assist  with  money,  laws  and  official  co-operation  in  the 
development  of  better  plants  and  animals. 

14.  Systems  of  comparing  or  judging  animals  must 
be  better  developed:  fa)  that  fancy  points  and  distin- 
guishing marks  shall  have  only  a  minor  place;  (b)  that 
the    qualities    in    which    special    economic    values    are 


lo  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

sought  shall  be  kept  prominent;  (c)  that  fecundity, 
stamina,  and  disease  resistance  shall  be  increased  ratner 
than  diminished;  and  (d)  that  all  characteristics  shall 
be  so  correlated  in  the  individuals  that  the  production 
of  the  breed  or  variety  will  be  highly  profitable. 

15.  Performance  records,  as  of  the  trotting  horse 
or  dairy  cow;  tests  of  intrinsic  values,  as  the  percent- 
age of  sugar  in  sugar  beets,  or  the  toughness  of  gluten 
in  wheat;  as  well  as  records  of  visible  characteristics, 
as  beauty  in  a  horse,  size  and  smoothness  of  a  steer,  or 
stiffness  of  straw  in  a  variety  of  oats,  are  now  being  re- 
corded in  many  lines  once  thought  impossible.  And 
these  records  are  worked  into  pedigrees  showing  rela- 
tive values  of  individuals  and  of  strains  of  blood,  thus 
giving  emphasis  to  the  best  stocks  of  animals  and  plants 
and  causing  them  to  be  widely  used. 

16.  Many  other  lines  of  importance,  of  intrinsic 
qualities,  and  of  visible  qualities  of  quasi-value,  or 
those  useful  merely  as  distinguishing  marks  by  which 
to  identify  blood  lines  of  known  value  which  cannot 
be  recorded  by  the  methods  now  known,  could  be 
shown  in  performance  pedigrees,  if  methods  were  de- 
vised for  the  respective  purposes. 

17.  Money  could  be  expended  with  as  much  profit 
in  determining  the  percentage  of  lean  meat  in  families 
of  hogs,  as  in  determining  the  speed  in  trotting  horses ; 
and  in  testing  the  hardiness  and  longevity  •  of  clover 
plants  as  in  determining  the  percentage  of  sugar  in 
sugar  beets.  Methods  need  not  be  more  complicated 
in  many  untried  lines  than  in  lines  wh^re  performance 
records  are  now  with  great  profit  already  being  re- 
corded. 

18.  More  comprehensive  methods  of  selection 
would  have  avoided  a  lessening  of  fecundity  in  some 
families  of  improved  swine,  and  a  decreasing  of  milk- 
giving  qualities  in  some  families  of  beef  and  genera! 
purpose  cattle ;  and  with  more  attention  to  general  val- 
ues the  too  exclusive  policy  of  breeding  the  fast  trotters 
for  the  short  race  would  not  have  so  greatly  jeopardized 


Breeding  Wheat,  Corn  and  Other  Crops.         ii 

the  blood  of  the  ''rock-bottomed"  Morgan  horses,  which 
came  near  extinction. 

19.  More  comprehensive  plans  are  needed  for  im- 
proving all  existing  breeds  and  varieties,  and  especially 
for  so  marshaling  records  of  intrinsic  qualities  in  pedi- 
grees that  the  best  varieties  and  breeds  will  be  in  more 
active  and  universal  demand  to  be  used  for  upgrading 
our  common  herds  and  flocks,  that  scrub  stock  may  be 
well  nigh  abolished. 

20.  We  need  new  breeds  and  new  varieties,  if  by 
new  combinations  of  lines  of  blood  now  available  we 
can  repeat  the  experiences  of  the  makers  of  our  present 
stocks  and  thus  have  better  breeds  and  better  varieties. 

21.  By  hybridization  the  breeder  creates  greater 
variations,  destroys  the  uniformity  of  his  herd  or  va- 
riety, and  usually  decreases  its  immediate  value,  but  if 
large  numbers  of  the  hybrid  are  propagated,  he  has 
a  wider  range  of  variation  from  among  which  to  secure 
extraordinary  individuals  with  remarkable  prepotency 
or  which  may  be  made  so  by  breeding  more  or  less  with- 
in close  relationships. 

22.  Hybridization  of  plants  or  animals  is  very 
easily  accomplished,  and  is  not  expensive,  but  the  labor 
and  time  involved  in  selecting  the  best  from  among 
very  many  make  it  the  work  of  the  philanthropist,  or 
of  the  permanently  established  seed  house  or  breeding 
firm,  or  of  the  state,  whose  life  is  continuous  and  is 
therefore  directly  interested  in  future  generations. 

23.  The  public  at  large  is  so  vitally  interested  in 
the  discovery  of  those  germs,  whether  of  useful  plant 
varieties  or  of  animal  breeds,  which  are  powerful  in 
their  ability  to  transmit  qualities  of  great  intrinsic  value, 
that  it  can  afford  to  aid  the  successful  individual  breed- 
er, the  co-operative  association,  and  the  corporate  seed 
breeding  establishment  or  firm,  in  creating  them  by 
hybridization  and  in  eliminating  the  many  undesirable 
ones  to  secure  the  few  best. 

24.  Since  private  agencies  are  too  slow  in  pre-emp- 
ting the  virgin  soil  in  these  long-time  business  proposi- 


12  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

tions,  the  people  are  properly  bidding  their  public 
agents  in  the  national  and  state  experiment  stations  to 
lay  out  the  land,  work  up  the  methods  of  experimenta- 
tion, and  possibly  permanently  hold  a  part  of  the  fields 
of  variety  and  breed  improvement. 

25.  Varieties  and  breeds  of  some  species,  as  of 
corn  and  dairy  cattle,  can  best  be  bred  by  individual 
farmers;  others  by  co-operative  associations,  as  swine; 
others  by  large  establishments;  and  others,  as  walnut 
or  pine  trees,  and  even  wheat  and  timothy,  by  experi- 
ment stations.  These  public  institutions,  with  the  aid  of 
scientific  laboratories  in  universities,  can  best  develop 
the  science  of  breeding.  The  profits  in  the  sale  of  new 
things  will  encourage  the  development  of  systematic 
business  methods,  which  in  turn  will  produce  the  meana 
for  the  necessary  experimenting. 

26.  Single  valuable  germs,  or  valuable  combina- 
tions of  germs  which  "nick,"  to  use  the  stockman's 
term,  are  found  or  produced  by  hybridizing  and  the 
work  borders  on  the  creative.  The  fact  that  here,  as  in 
the  diamond  mine,  the  real  gems  are  found  only  after 
thousands  or  hundreds  of  thousands  of  parts  of  base 
soil  are  handled,  only  makes  them  seem  the  more  prec- 
ious. These  germs  are  wonderful,  living,  reproducing 
beings,  a  part  of  the  world  of  life,  related  to  the  very 
essence  of  man.  No  business  is  all  sordid,  but  here  the  • 
compensation  in  interesting  living  forms,  in  scientific 
development,  and  in  a  close  insight  into  living  nature  is 
peculiarly  varied,  rich,  lasting  and  satisfying. 

Plant  breeding  has  been  immensely  benefited  by 
animal  breeding,  but  at  present  plant  breeding  is 
more  than  paying  back  in  new  theories  and  new  busi- 
ness methods.  Animal  breeders  should  get  into  the 
same  attitude  in  which  plant  breeders  find  themselves, 
and  recognize  that  important  and  helpful  changes  in 
methods  may  occur,  if  indeed  they  are  not  now  im- 
mment. 


CHAPTER  11. 

BREEDING  WHEAT^   CORN   AND  OTHER  CROPS, 

The  possibilities  for  making  valuable  improvements 
in  domestic  animals  and  plants  offer  opportunities  foi 
the  profitable  employment  of  energies  and  capital  at 
every  point.  .  In  many  cases  private  enterprise  properly 
assumes  the  work  and  secures  the  rewards.  In  other 
cases  co-operative  associations  can  bCvSt  meet  the  condi- 
tions for  making  improvements  and  securing  that  pro- 
portion of  the  new  values  which  will  pay  those  who 
do  the  work.  Rewards  are  needed  to  induce  breeders 
to  continue  actively  pressing  forward  the  improvement* 
needed  by  the  practical  growers  who  use  the  new  breeds 
and  varieties.  In  yet  other  instances  large  and  powerful 
corporations  for  breeding  and  merchandizing  can  best 
effect  the  improvements  needed  by  the  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple and  secure  that  share  of  the  rewards  which  will 
support  their  business.  In  not  a  few  lines  the  work 
may  best  be  accomplished  by  those  servants  of  the  pub- 
lic who  are  employed  by  State  experiment  stations, 
by  the  national  government  and  by  other  institutions 
of  a  public  or  semi-public  nature. 

In  many  lines  of  field  crop  production  the  field  is 
entirely  unoccupied,  so  far  as  known  to  the  writer.  No 
one  in  this  country  has  placed  on  the  market  a  single 
newly-bred  variety  of  timothy,  brome  grass,  red  clover, 
alsike  clover,  white  clover,  alfalfa,  Kentucky  blue  grass, 
orchard  grass,  millet,  soy  beans,  Kaffir  corn,  flax,  broom 
corn,  nor  of  many  other  field  and  horticultural  crops, 
while  the  breeding  of  forest  crops  has  hardly  been  men- 
tioned in  any  country.  In  only  a  few  lines  of  field  crops 
has  a  substantial  start  been  made. 

The  most  wonderful  scientific  work  in  any  one  line 
has  been  accomplished  in  the  breeding  of  sugar  beets, 


14  '  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

which  through  the  expenditure  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars,  has  created  millions  of  added  wealth. 
The  per  cent  of  sugar  in  the  juice  of  the  common  beet 
has  been  increased  from  six  to  fifteen  per  cent,  or  150 
per  cent  increase  of  sugar,  and  the  solids  other  than 
sugar  have  been  materially  decreased,  making  the  puri- 
fication of  the  sugar  less  expensive.  This  breeding  has 
rendered  it  possible  for  growers  of  sugar  t)eets  to  make 
profits,  for  factories  to  conduct  a  paying  business,  and 
for  the  people  of  the.  world  to  enjoy  sugar  at  a  less 
price.  The  growers  of  sugar  beet  seeds  in  Europe 
have  their  work  of  breeding  highly  developed,  but  even 
in  sugar  beets  American  plant  breeders  have  an  oppor- 
tunity for  profitable  employment.  We  need  varieties 
adapted  to  numerous  local  conditions  and  the  seeds  can 
best  be  bred  under  conditions  similar  to  those  where 
the  crops  of  sugar  beets  are  to  be  grown.  Eu- 
ropean varieties,  long  bred  for  a  climate  with  less  sun- 
shme,  a  moister  atmosphere,  cooler  nights,  and  with 
cooler  soils  with  moisture  nearer  the  surface,  are  hardly 
adapted  to  our  sunnier  climate.  What  is  wanted  is 
tonnage  of  sugar  per  acre  and  to  get  this  we  must 
have  larger  yields  of  sugar  beets  than  we  now  have 
from  European  seeds.  Our  warm  dry  climate  will  usu- 
ally give  quality ;  we  must  work  more  for  size  of  roots. 
Unlike  Europe  we  can  easier  secure  richness  of  juice 
than  size  and  yield.  Factories  have  been  so  perfected 
that  high  percentage  of  sugar  and  low  percentage  of 
solids  not  sugar  are  not  so  essential  as  formerly.  For 
the  farmer  to  secure  more  profit  per  acre  he  must  in- 
crease the  yield  of  sugar  per  acre.  Taking  the  best  sug- 
ar-yielding varieties  now  obtainable  from  Europe  as  his 
foundation  stock  the  scientific  sugar  beet  seed  grower 
in  this  country  needs  to  work  for  yields  mainly  through 
somewhat  increasing  the  size  of  the  roots,  keeping  up, 
however,  and  even  increasing  that  of  England.  Only 
part  of  this  difference  is  attributable  to  the  fact  that 
England  has  a  wheat  clim.ate  and  America  a  corn  cli- 
mate.   Part  is  due  to  the  fact  that  for  centuries  Europe 


Breeding  Wheat,  Corn  and  Other  Crops.        15 

has  been  improving  varieties  by  adapting  them  to  con- 
ditions there.  These  varieties  do  not  succeed  so  well 
here,  yet  we  have  continued  growing  them  too  long. 
The  breeding  of  wheat  in  Europe  has  not  reached  that 
perfection  found  in  the  breeding  of  sugar  beets,  but 
it  has  been  effective.  Hallet's  square  head  wheat  bred 
by  Major  Hallet,  of  England,  was  the  parent  of  a  class 
of  wheat  which  has  been  very  widely  used  throughout 
the  northern  portion  of  the  wheat  belt  of  Europe  and 
has  been  worth  many  millions  of  dollars  to  farmers  and 
consumers  of  flour.  Dr.  Rimpau,  of  Germany;  Vil- 
morin,  of  France,  and  others  have  originated  new 
wheats  which  have  been  widely  used  because  they  have 
increased  the  value  of  the  products  per  acre.  Still 
others,  as  Fr.  Strubbe,  of  Schlanstad,  Province  of  Sax- 
ony, Germany,  are  effectively  carrying  such  varieties  as 
Hallet's  square  head  wheat  on  to  further  perfection. 
More  bold,  the  Garton  Brothers,  of  Newton  le  Willows, 
England,  are  striking  out  into  the  dangerous,  yet  most 
fruitful  field,  of  radical  hybridization,  and  are  creating 
new  varieties,  if  not,  indeed,  new  species  of  wheat.  If 
they  have  the  element  of  long  endurance,  their  reward 
promises  to  be  great.  Still  others  there  are  who  merely 
dream  of  breeding  the  richness  in  sugar  and  freedom 
from  impurities  of  the  juice.  Hybridization  in  the  for- 
mation of  entirely  new  varieties  is  also  an  agency  which 
should  be  utilized  by  experiment  stations  and  others 
situated  where  it  is  practicable  to  wait  many  years  for 
results  which  may  be  of  especial  value.  Thus  it  will 
be  seen  that  even  in  this,  the  most  exploited  line  of 
breeding,  there  are  opportunities  for  Americans  in  plant 
breeding.  This  view  was  assented  to  by  European  sug- 
ar beet  breeders  with  whom  the  writer  conversed  at 
several  German  centers  of  sugar  beet  seed  growing. 

The  breeding  of  potatoes  has  been  carried  forward 
so  extensively  that  the  original  potato  has  been  chang^ed 
to  yield  vastly  more  tubers  of  much  improved  quality. 
Yet  the  improvements  which  continue  to  go  forward 
with  the  decades,  show  that  the  limit  of  perfection  iM 


1 6  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 


*i> 


yet  in  the  future,  if,  indeed,  there  is  such  a  thing  as.  a 
limit  to  the  changes  which  may  be  produced  in  living 
form  through  selection  and  hybridization.  Special  va- 
rieties are  needed  in  many  localities  peculiar  in  soil 
and  climate.  Varieties  are  needed  which  can  be  pro- 
duced in  the  North  and  are  better  adapted  to  sending 
South  for  seed,  as  is  now  done  with  some  varieties. 
Kinds  with  more  starch  are  needed  for  the  manufac- 
turers of  starch  and  starch  products. 

The  yield  of  wheat  in  America  is  ridiculously  low, 
only  half  wheat.  But  results  are  different  with  the 
director  of  the  plant  breeding  experiment  station  of 
Svalof,  Sweden.  Here  a  semi-public  experiment  station 
produces  new  varieties  of  wheat  and  also  other  crops, 
thoroughly  tests  the  many  kinds,  and  distributes  thru 
a  co-operative  organization  those  few  which  are  proven 
to  be  markedly  superior  to  the  kinds  commonly  grown. 

On  this  continent.  Carmen,  in  New  York ;  Blount,  in 
Colorado ;  Saunders,  in  Canada ;  Haynes,  in  North  Da- 
kota; Hays,  in  Minnesota,  and  others  have  each  given 
to  the  public  one  or  more  new  varieties  of  improved 
wheats.  Others,  as  Shepperd,  in  North  Dakota;  Carl- 
ton, of  Washington,  D.  C. ;  Atkinson,  in  Iowa ;  Chil- 
cott  and  Sundaers,  in  South  Dakota ;  and  Bull,  of  Illi- 
nois, are  now  taking  up  the  work  of  making  improved 
varieties  of  wheat  especially  suited  to  their  respective 
states.  Blue  stem  varieties  or  classes  of  spring  wheat 
which  hold  full  sway  in  the  middle  Northwest;  Tur- 
key Red  winter  wheat,  which  leads  all  others  in  area 
in  the  Great  Plain  States ;  the  wheats  of  the  Poulouse 
region  of  the  Atlantic  States,  and  the  special  wheats 
of  each  minor  locality,  are  nearly  all  imported  from 
Europe.  And  now  the  macaroni  wheats  of  Southeast- 
ern Europe  are  coming  into  prominence  in  that  semi- 
arid  zone  where  the  agricultural  districts  and  ranch 
plain  join.  Each  and  everyone  of  these  winter  and 
spring  bread  wheats,  also  the  macaroni  wheats,  can 
doubtless  be  improved  by  selection  so  as  to  yield  ten 
or  even  twenty  per  cent  more  value  per  acre.    At  least, 


Breeding  Wheat,  Corn  and  Other  Crops,        ij 

this  has  been  done  in  several  instances  at  the  Minnesota 
Experiment  Station  with  the  spring  bread  wheat. 

By  extefisive  hybridization  followed  by  selection,  no 
doubt  varieties  can  be  made  which  will  far  better  tit 
into  the  conditions  of  each  and  every  wheat  growing 
section,  and  even  extend  the  wheat  area  into  sections 
where  wheat  does  not  now  succeed.  It  were  better  if 
many  sections  now  growing  wheat  on  the  same  land 
continuously  would  grow  a  less  acreage,  and  if  other 
sections  now  growing  but  little  would  grow  more  of 
the  world's  leading  wheat  crop  in  rotation  with  other 
crops.  Wheat  has  proved  to  be  one  of  the  easiest 
plants  to  work  with  in  making  improvements  and  re- 
sults are  far-reaching. 

In  Minnesota  a  new  variety  of  Fife  wheat,  Minn. 
No.  163,  and  a  new  variety  of  Blue  Stem  wheat,  Minn. 
No.  169,  have  been  placed  among  the  farmers  to  dis- 
place the  parents  of  these  two  varieties.  Ample  proof 
is  in  hand  that  each  of  these  wheats  will  yield  an  aver- 
age of  ij4  bushels  more  per  acre  than  its  parent.  Es- 
timates place  the  acreage  planted  to  these  two  wheats  in 
Mmnesota  in  1902  at  about  60,000  acres.  All  the  cost 
of  plant  breeding  at  the  Minnesota  Station,  including 
all  variety  testing  of  all  species,  aiid  all  the  studies  in 
animal  breeding  in  the  past  dozen  years  will  have  been 
paid  for  by  this  increase,  estimated  as  worth  $1  per 
acre.  If  these  varieties  of  wheat  could  be  increased 
only  four  fold  annually  for  four  more  years  there  would 
be  sufficient  wheat  to  sow  the  entire  crop  of  Minnesota 
and  much  to  spare  for  other  states.  One  dollar  added 
to  the  value  of  each  acre  of  wheat  in  Minnesota  makes 
a  total  of  over  $5,000,000  annually.  Even  if  those 
wheats  are  so  increased  as  to  plant  one-fifth  of  the  field 
of  the  state,  which  is  to  be  hoped,  as  business  method:* 
are  being  used  to  distribute  them,  the  increased  value 
of  the  crop  will  be  a  million  dollars  annually.* 


*     Note — This  has  already  practically  resulted,  Au- 
gust, 1905. 


1 8  Breeding::  Plants  and  Animals, 


'i> 


The  experiment  station  has  one  or  two  thousand 
other  newly-selected  hybrid  wheats  in  its  nursery  field 
test  plats,  some  of  which' it  is  hoped  will  prove  worthy 
of  supplanting  those  disseminated.  This  station's  op- 
portunity to  add  two  to  five  bushels  per  acre,  six  to  fif- 
teen million  dollars  per  annum,  to  the  crop  of  wheat  in 
Minnesota,  is  by  no  means  singular  to  Minnesota,  be- 
cause other  states  have  crops  of  which  the  average  yield 
is  ridiculously  small.  It  may  require  25,  50,  or  even 
100  years  to  increase  the  crop  of  wheat  five  bushels 
per  acre  by  breeding,  regardless  of  any  additional  in- 
crease which  may  come  from  better  methods  of  man- 
aging the  fafms  and  fields.  In  any  event,  the  eflFort 
will  pay.  A  wheat  germ  which  can  be  the  parent  of  a 
variety  which  wnll  yield  a  bushel  more  of  wheat  is 
worth  millions.  The  yield  alone  is  not  the  only  point  for 
improvement,  even  in  the  wheat.  The  hard  wheats  can 
be  made  still  harder  and  the  soft  wheats  can  be  so  im- 
proved that  they  will  rival  the  hard  wheats  in  the  tough- 
ness of  their  gluten,  in  the  color  of  their  bread,  and  in 
the  nutriment  they  contain.  It  is  quite  as  much  of  an 
undertaking  to  hunt  for  such  germs  in  places  where 
they  are  so  much  needed  as  to  hunt  for  diamonds  in  the 
greatest  diamond  mines. 

Corn  is  the  king  concentrate  for  animal  rations,  in 
that  it  yields  more  money  per  acre  when  fed  to  live 
stock  over  a  larger  area  than  any  other  crop.  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, Prof.  Sliamel,  Prof.  Holden,  and  others  in  Illinois 
and  Iowa,  are  showing  what  may  be  done  in  improving 
corn.  They  are  emphasizing  the  fact  that  farmers  in 
their  field  selection  have  bred  mainly  for  yield  and 
that  now  an  additional  opportunity  offers  in  improving 
corn  in  America's  great  corn  belt  lies  in  increasing  the 
nitrogen  and  fat  percentages,  and  the  yield  of  these 
compounds  per  acre.  No  doubt  the  Illinois  Corn  Breed- 
ers' Association,  headed  by  the  State  Experiment  Sta- 
tion, will  have  the  credit  in  ten  years  of  having  increased 
the  value  of  the  corn  crop  of  that  great  state  five  or  ten 
per  cent.     In  Minnesota,  the  experiment  station  took 


Pedigreed  Animals  and  Plants.  19 

up  the  pioneer  problem  of  pushing-  the  north  Hne 
of  the  dent  corn  zone  further  to  the  North  and  North- 
west. Minnesota  No.  13  corn,  bred  by  the  Experiment 
Station,  has  been  one  of  the  potent  factors  in  pushing 
dent  corn  grown  for  ears  fifty  miles  north  in  a  decade. 
The  modern  corn  binder  and  corn  busker  have  also 
had  a  great  influence  on  this  movement.  This  same 
variety  of  corn  has  figured  prominently  in  the  introduc- 
tion  of  corn  into  the  northern  counties  as  a  hay  crop. 
A  bushel  or  more  of  seed  of  this  short-stalked  variety 
of  dent  corn  planted  in-  drills  three  and  one-half  feet 
apart,  with  seeds  one  to  two  inches  apart  in  the  rows, 
produces  several  tons  of  fine  hay  in  regions  where 
clover  does  not  succeed.  Flint  varieties,  which  thrive 
better  in  the  northern  climate  with  cooler  soil,  are  be- 
ing bred  by  Minnesota's  two  northern  sub-stations  and 
by  the  North  Dakota  Experiment  Station  on  the  Min- 
nesota line.  Minnesota  alone  needs  numerous  varieties 
of  corn  bred  for  its  varymg  conditions  of  soil  and 
climate. 

Since  corn  hybridizes  by  the  pollen  being  carried 
by  the  wind  forty  or  more  rods,  an  experiment  station 
or  a  farmer  cannot  well  breed  more  than  one  or  two 
kinds.  There  is  here  opportunity  for  many  corn 
breeders.  None  of  our  other  crops  seems  so  readily 
adaptable  by  breeding  to  local  conditions.  While  a  va- 
riety of  wheat  may  dominate  in  several  states,  a  va- 
riety of  corn  is  mere  likely  to  be  adapted  to  a  group  of 
counties.  Breeding  corn  by  scientific  methods  will  pay 
private  individuals ;  therefore  it  will  be  rapidly  develop- 
ed. A4anufactiirers  of  corn  starch  and  its  products 
will  provide  a  market  for  corn  especially  bred  for  their 
purposes.  While  feeders  can  afford  to  pay  more  for 
corn  containing  more  protein,  manufacturers  can.  afford 
to  pay  for  the  higher  percentage  of  oil  and  starch. 
Since  a  bushel  of  seed  will  plant  seven  or  eight  acres 
of  hill  corn,  the  farmer  can  well  afford  to  pay  the 
breeders  two  or  even  three  dollars  per  bushel  for  seed 


20  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

having  superior  heredity  and  so  dried  and  stored  that  its 
vitality  is  unimpaired. 

One  more  example  will  suffice  for  opportunities  in 
breeding  field  crops.  Alfalfa  is  a  wonderful  crop  in 
dry  regions  where  the  temperature  does  not  reach  too 
low  a  point.  But  in  the  northern  tier  of  states  the 
common  alfalfa  of  the  West  sometimes  fails  to  en- 
dure the  winters.  The  National  Department  of  Agri- 
culture has  imported  from  Turkestan  several  new  forms 
of  alfalfa.  One  of  these  found  by  Prof.  Hansen  in 
Northern  Turkestan  promises  to  be  very  hardy,  though 
no  considerable  quantity  of  that  variety  is  yet  available 
for  seed.  It  is  worthy  of  note  in  passing  that  some 
seed  being  distributed  as  Turkestan  alfalfa  will  prob- 
ably not  prove  hardy  as  some  of  the  original  varieties 
secured  from  warm  cotton-growing  portions  of  Turke- 
stan have  not  proven  hardy.  Hardy  forms  of  alfalfa 
have  been  accidentally  discovered  growing  in  the 
Northwest  and  are  to  be  disseminated.  This  crop  can 
be  especially  bred  to  yield  even  more  for  the  different 
irrigated  district,  for  the  unirrigated  districts  of  the 
Southwest  and  for  the  cold  districts  of  the  North.  In 
Minnesota,  for  example,  we  have  great  need  of  such 
a  crop  to  grow  hay  and  with  which  to  enrich  our  soils 
for  grain,  and  which  will  compel  as  well  as  enable  us 
to  raise  more  live  stock,  that  we  may  let*  alfalfa  and 
other  "crops  go  to  market  on  foot  and  leave  the  fertility 
on  the  land.'' 

The  opportunities  for  breeding  other  crops  will  be 
mentioned  in  future  pages  in  connection  with  detailed 
methods  of  breeding  the  respective  crops. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PEDIGREED  ANIMALS  AND  PLANTS. 

Readers  of  these  pages  do  not  need  to  be  told  of 
the  wonderful  opportunities  for  profitable  business  in 
improving  and  growing  pedigreed  animals  to  be  sold 
for  breeders.  The  many  advertising  pages  of  the  Agri- 
cultural press  speak  louder  than  words  that  our  breed- 
ers are  producing  wonderful  stock,  and  that  America 
has  become  the  greatest  market  in  the  world  for  pedi- 
greed animals.  Our  stock  shows  and  public  sales  illus- 
trate that  live  stock  is  of  paramount  interest  in  things 
agricultural.  We  have  no  stronger,  more  vigorous,  nor 
more  brainy  class  of  men  than  those  who  make  live 
stock  breeding  and  live  stock  growing  their  chief  spec- 
ialty. The  enormous  sales  of  live  stock  and  live  stock 
products  illustrate  the  interest  our  country  has  in  do- 
mesticated animals. 

Breeding  animals  as  practiced  is  mainly  an  art,  . 
though  scientific  methods  are  creeping  in.  The  art  as 
now  developed  is  too  much  subject  to  fashion.  Standards 
are  not  so  determined  as  to  consider  or  include  all  cor- 
related qualities  needed  to  give  general  values  and  the 
fashions  change,  resulting  in  the  loss  of  part  of  that 
force  of  heredity  which  comes  from  long  breeding  in 
one  line.  Mere  f&ncy  points  and  distinguishing  marks 
are  too  often  bred  into  the  surface,  while  intrinsic  qual- 
ities are  not  bred  to  uniformity.  Artistic  methods  deal- 
ing with  the  outward  appearance  should  not  be  made 
less  important,  but  scientific  methods  dealing  with 
the  intrinsic  qualities  should  be  largely  developed.  A 
prominent  poultry  judge,  in  the  writer's  presence  at  a 
national  show  in  Chicago,  placed  all  the  weight  of  his 
score  card  on  the  wattles,  feathers,  leg  scales  and  other 
mere  "clothes"  of  the  rooster  of  a  meat  breed  and  gave 


22  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

no  attention  whatever  to  the  thickness  of  meat  on  the 
breast  and  legs.  He  illustrated  how  judging  by  fancy 
points  can  be  carried  to  a  ridiculous  extreme.  Trot- 
ting horse  breeders,  on  the  other  hand,  have  held  so 
closely  to  trotting  records  that  they  have  too  often  over- 
looked comeliness,  one  of  the  most  important  character- 
istics of  the  road  horse.  What  is  needed  is  breeding  in 
a  formal  way  for  the  combination  of  intrinsic  qualities, 
artistic  qualities  and  distinguishing  points  which  will 
yield  the  greatest  value.  The  breeder  must  have  a 
broad,  scientific  plan  and  besides  he  must  have  a  broad 
mental  attitude  as  an  artist  in  breeding. 

The  opportunities  in  animal  breeding  lie  in  com- 
prehensive breeding  and  in  recording  performance  rec- 
ords which  will  greatly  re-inforce  pedigrees,  as  we  or- 
dinarily understand  the  term  pedigree.     The  perfor- 
mance basis  of  our  pedigrees  is  now  on  too  narrow  a 
plan  in  many  instances.     In  case  of  some  families  of 
special  egg-producing  chickens  the  only  records  claimed 
to  have  a  semblance  of  performance  records  are  prizes 
given  cocks  and  hens  by  some  judge  who  simply  judged 
their  outward  appearances  and  gave  them  a  high  record 
because  their  ''clothes''  were  of  the  same  type  as  that 
mentioned  in  a  standard  of  excellence.     Catch  a  trot- 
ting horse  breeder  choosing  a  stallion  for  his  mares  be- 
cause some  judge  had  given  him  a  blue  ribbon  on  ac- 
count of  his  neck  and  back  being  built  right  and  be- 
cause he  was  of  a  pretty  color !     Yet  too  many  of  our 
beef,  swine  and  sheep  pedigrees  ha^je  in  them  too  little 
which  indicates  the  performing  ability  of  the  animals 
besides  the  judgment  of  judges  at  shows.     This  point 
would  not  be  mentioned  here  if  there  were  no  remedy. 
The  writer  recognizes  fully  the  great  value  these  prizes 
have  as  a  means  of  dispelling  the  indifference  of  farmers 
to    the    value    of    really    meritorious    breeding    stock. 
There  is  not  so  much  need  of  new  breeds  of  animals, 
as  the  term  breeds  is  commonly  used.    But  there  is  need 
of  improvement  within  the  existing  breeds  and  if  im- 


Pedigreed  Animals  and  Plants  23 

provement  can  better  be  secured  by  making  new  ones 
then  new  breeds  are  needed. 

The  breeding  of  swine  will  illustrate  this  point.  There 
is  needed  a  breed  which  has  the  prolificacy  of  the 
Tamworths,  the  earliness  of  maturity  of  the  Berkshires, 
the  comeliness  and  general  desirability  of  the  Poland- 
Chinas,  the  ability  to  make  more  weight  out  of  a  hun- 
dred pounds  of  feed  than  any  existing  breed,  having 
more  lean  meat  than  any  of  the  so-called  bacon  breeds 
and  with  a  goodly  degree  of  immunity  from  hog  chol- 
era, rheumatism  and  other  hog  diseases.  The  writer 
and  Prof.  Andrew  Boss  have  presumed  to  plan  for 
the  development  of  a  hog  along  these  lines.  If  within 
fifteen  years  of  effort  a  good  degree  of  excellence  could 
be  reached  in  the  combination  of  the  qualities  mentioned, 
and  records  were  preserved  proving  and  amply  illus- 
trating the  facts  of  such  excellence,  the  pedigrees  would 
assist  in  selling  breeding  stock  at  long  prices.  While 
many  difficulties  present  themselves  at  the  outset  in  such 
an  undertaking  some  have  been  in  part  solved  and  no 
doubt  more  may  be.  Experiments  in  animal  breeding 
are  so  expensive  that  scientists  have  not  yet  seriously 
undertaken  to  solve  many  problems  of  a  practical  na- 
ture which  are  of  immense  importance.  Half  the  bat- 
tle will  be  won  by  securing  the  best  available  foundation 
stocks,  just  as  "a  steer  well  bought  is  half  fed'.''  It 
would  seem  wise  to  use  some  Tamworth  blood  and  pos- 
sibly some  Yorkshire,  at  least  the  families  of  these 
breeds  should  be  rigidly  tested.  Families  of  Poland- 
China,  Berkshire  or  of  the  other  hogs  long  bred  in  the 
corn  and  clover  belt  may  also  be  found  to  score  up 
well  under  the  score  card  outlined  in  the  foregoinsf  and 
,  could  be  chosen  for  all  or  part  of  the  foundation  blood. 
It  mav  be  that  the  mule-footed  hoes  with  vieor  trans- 
mitted from  their  wild  Ozark  ancestors  may  have  one 
or  more  characteristics,  as  disease  resistance,  which  can 
be  brought  into  use.  When  the  field  is  thoroughly  re- 
viewed and  the  chosen  family  lines  extensively  tested 
then  it  is  time  to  say  whether  to  make  the  improvements 


24  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

all  within  that  breed  which  is  now  nearest  the  desired 
type  by  mere  breed  improvement  or  to  make  the  effort 
by  hybridizing  two  or  more  kinds.  It  may  be  that  ef- 
forts along  two  or  more  parallel  lines  should  be  made. 
The  expense  is  too  large  and  the  goal  is  too  great  to 
stop  short  of  the  best  way.  While  crossing  breeds  is 
generally  thought  poor  policy  in  upgrading  or  in  grow- 
ing stock  for  market  the  experimenter  must  not  be  too 
fearful  of  new^  things. 

The  first  point  to  investigate  is  that  relating  to 
disease  resistance.  In  plant  breeding  rapid  strides  are 
being  made  to  secure  wheat  that  better  resists  rust, 
cotton  that  resists  cotton  blight  and  grapes  which  resist 
phyloxera.  It  is  well  known  that  some  individual  hogs 
resist  cholera  entirely  and  that  others  have  only  light 
attacks.  Can  we  not  find  individuals  whose  progeny 
will  be  nearly  immune?  Who  has  records  along  this 
line?  Do  the  litters  from  certain  sows  show  greater 
ability  to  resist  cholera  than  litters  from  other  sows? 
The  wTiter  w^ould  Hke  to  correspond  now  or  in  the 
future  w^ith  persons  who  have  evidence  that  some  fami- 
lies of  hogs  are  more  nearly  immune  from  cholera  or 
rheumatism  than  others.  This  is  a  matter  worthy  of 
wide  inquiry  and  investigation.  This  might  be  a  most 
fruitful  line  of  research  for  the  Bureau  of  Animal  In- 
dustry at  Washington  in  its  highly  important  experi- 
ments -with  swine  diseases.  A  small  fraction  of  the 
money  now  lost  from  hog  cholera  if  spent  in  breeding 
cholera-proof  hogs  might  possibly  greatly  lessen  the 
disease. 

The  second  point  for  investigation  is  concerning  the 
proportion  of  lean  meat  or  the  thickness  of  the  muscu- 
lar covering  over  the  bones  and  the  quality  of  the  meat. 
This  seems  even  a  bolder  proposition  than  determining 
the  power  of  disease  resistance.  It  is  hardly  less  im- 
portant. Lean  meat  is  what  justifies  high  prices,  and 
pedigree  records  showing  that  a  breed  or  family  of  hogs 
had  a  high  percentage  of  lean  meat  would  give  a  basis 
for  high  prices  for  breeding  animals.    If  the  breed  were 


Pedigreed  Animals  and  Plants.  25 

of  such  form  or  color  that  buyers  of  fat  hogs  could 
distinguish  them  in  the  stock  yards  they  would  sell 
for  a  better  price.  Certainly  consumers  buying  at  the 
block  would  gladly  pay  for  more  lean  meat  through- 
out. The  writer  has  observed  carcasses  of  hogs  which 
have  over  50  per  cent  more  lean  meat  than  other  car- 
casses of  the  same  size  and  reared  and  fed  under  the 
same  conditions.  There  are  wide  variations  of.  lean 
meat  even  in  the  individuals  of  the  brood  of  one  sow. 
There  is  a  marked  difference  in  the  proportion  of  lean 
meat  in  one  breed  as  compared  with  another.  No  doubt 
prepotent  in  producing  a  large  percentage  of  lean  meat 
and  others  in  which  the  progeny  average  less  in  this 
desirable  characteristic.  Actual  measurements  in  the 
thickness  of  lean  meat  could  not  be  generally  carried  out 
in  practical  breeding  of  pedigreed  hogs  by  the  ordinary 
small  breeder,  nor  should  that  be  necessary.  But  the 
State  or  co-operative  organization  or  large  corporations 
might  record  such  measurements ;  or  the  State  or  coun- 
ty might  aid  the  co-operative  organizations  and  founda- 
tion stock  be  thus  made  available  for  the  common 
breeder. 

It  is  not  probable  that  suggestions  here  made  can 
be  worked  out  without  modification.  But  to  place  the 
suggestions  under  specific  and  practical  conditions  let  us 
assume  that  twenty  farmers  in  Carver  County,  Minn., 
are  organized  into  a  co-operative  hog  breeders'  associa- 
tion. Let  this  association  deliberately  plan  to  take 
the  lead  in  the  production  of  a  strain  of  Yorkshire 
hogs  which  shall  be  more  cholera-resistant,  especially 
high  in  percentage  of  lean  meat,  excelling  in  the  num- 
ber of  pigs  successfully  reared  per  litter,  superior  in 
the  amount  of  growth  per  hundred  pounds  of  standard 
food  eaten,  comely,  uniform  in  appearance  and  prepo- 
tent when  used  in  crossing  and  upgrading  and  other- 
wise valuable  and  desirable.  Let  the  association  de- 
termine upon  a  type  of  hog  that  shall  be  the  idea!  to- 
ward which  all  shall  work.  Let  each  of  the  twenty 
breeders  secure  by  private  means  or  through  chosen 


26  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

officers  of  the  association  five  or  more  sows  and  a  boar 
of  the  better  strains  of  Yorkshire  hogs  and  be  guided  by 
rules  similar  to  the  following : 

All  members  shall  adopt  about  the  same  date  for 
farrowing  and  breed  each  bunch  of  sows.     All  males 
are  to  be  kept  until  their  progeny  are  matured,  that 
those  proving  most  prepotent  of  the  twenty  males  may 
be  available  for  use  another  year.     All  members  shall 
use  similar  care  and  similar  rations  and  otherwise  treat 
the  sows  and  the  young  broods  alike.     There  will  be 
unavoidable  differences  in   treatment  since  one  man 
will  have  more  skim-milk  for  his  pigs,  more  pasturage 
for  his  shotes  and  will  feed  and  care  for  his  herd  more 
regularly  and  carefully  than  another.     But  reasonably 
uniform  conditions  should  prevail  and  an  effort  should 
be  made  to  induce  all  members  to  give  equally  good 
care  to  their  pigs,  that  all  may  come  to  the  test  at  about 
the  same  weight  and  from  similar  previous  feeding  and 
care.    It  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  litters  will  average 
six  pigs.     When  four  months  old  any  very  poor  pigs 
are  to  be  discarded  from  further  test  and  the  best  ap- 
pearing male  and  the  two  best  females  are  to  be  re- 
served by  the  breeder  and  given  that  good  care  which 
will  develop  them  for  breeders.     From  the  remaining 
number  of  each  brood  each  breeder  is  to  place  at  the 
disposal  of  the  association  two  or  three  average  animals. 
These  are  to  be  cared  for  and  fed  by  some  one  chosen 
for  that  purpose  by  the  association.    All  these  test  ani- 
mals are  to  be  fed  alike  and  together  for  two  weeks. 
During  their  sixth  and  seventh  months  the  selected  pigs 
from  each  group  are  to  be  fed  separately  for  six  or 
eight  weeks.    A  ration  uniform  in  character  and  adapt- 
ed to  ad  libitum  feeding  is  to  be  fed  throughout  and 
weights  of  food  eaten  and  of  gains  made  are  to  be  re- 
corded.    When  the  feeding  experiment  is  finished  all 


Pedigreed  Animals  and  Plants.  27 

are  to  be  slaughtered  and  the  percentage  of  lean  meat 
and  of  fat  to  bones,  and  of  lean  meat,  fat  and  bones  to 
live  weight,  etc.,  are  to  be  determined  and  recorded. 
Some  observations  already  made  along  this  latter  line 
lead  to  the  belief  that  by  sketching  the  areas  of  fat, 
lean  and  bones  on  the  cut  surfaces  of  certain  carefully 
made  commercial  cuts;  or  by  making  photographs,  a 
practically  accurate  record  can  be  secured  of  the  per- 
centages of  lean  meat,  fat  and  bones.  The  measure- 
ments of  areas  of  parts  in  the  cross-sections  of  meat  are 
easily  made  by  means  of  an  instrument  called  a  plani- 
meter,  which  measures  areas  no  matter  what  may  be 
their  form.  Experiments  have  been  planned  tO'  con- 
struct a  conversion  table  for  reducing  measurements 
made  as  above  to  a  percentage  basis,  that  they  may  be 
more  easily  utilized  in  pedigrees.  A  careful  record 
shall  be  made  of  the  number  of  pigs  each  sow  farrows 
and  of  the  number  she  rears,  and  of  imjx)rtant  facts 
concerning  the  death  of  any  young.  Her  milking  abil- 
ity shall  be  determined  where  practicable,  also  her  dis- 
position in  the  care  of  her  brood.  All  facts  concerning 
each  pig  shall  be  recorded  by  the  breeder, 
old,  color  or  other  markings  and  any  peculiarities  which 
are  especially  noteworthy. 

The  average  records  made  in  the  feeding  trials  01 
the  shotes  comprising  the  progeny  of  each  dam  and  of 
each  sire  shall  constitute  the  breeding  measure  or  re- 
cord of  that  parent.  These/ records  can  be  designated 
by  the  term,  "centgener  records,''  a  term  recently  adap- 
ted to  a  similar  use  in  plant  breeding.  Centgener  is 
made  up  of  the  words  centum,  a  hundred,  and  genera, 
generation,  or,  practically,  many  of  one  generation  Here 
it  may  mean  the  average  of  one  generation,  or  one 
year's  get  of  a  sow,  or  a  boar,  grown  under  similar 
conditions. 

Discussion  of  this  proposition  and  especially  of  fam- 
ilies which  might  be  worthy  of  investigation  as  possi- 
bly useful  in  connection  with  such  an  experiment  would 


28  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

be  appreciated  by  the  present  writer.  Future  articles 
will  discuss  in  a  somewhat  similar  manner  the  breeding 
of  other  animals  for  special  and  general  purposes  and 
the  breeding  of  leading  crops.  The  writer  desires  to 
suggest  to  others  that  they  may  better  outline  methods 
of  attacking  problems  rather  than  undertake  to  outline 
in  detail  plans  for  breeders  to  follow.  The  rapidly 
evolving  subject  causes  many  of  these  plans  to  be  revo- 
lutionized every  few  years. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   SHAKESPEARES   OF    PLANTS    AND    ANIMALS. 

In  taking  up  the  general  propositions  enunciated 
under  paragraphs  numbered  i  to  26  in  early  pages, 
there  is  no  assumption  that  these  are  more  than  a  basis 
for  informal  discussion.  Practical  examples  and  sug- 
gested plans  for  comprehensive  reorganization  of  the 
breeding  business  will  serve  as  a  basis  for  the  discus- 
sions. The  facts  relating  to  heredity  and  the  achieve- 
ment of  breeders  of  both  plants  and  animals  will  be 
used  to  show  that  the  current  literature  and  the  books 
on  breeding  have  not  been  sufficiently  optimistic.  We 
need  to  read  between  the  lines  in  Darwin's  books  to 
gain  the  full  inspiration  they  leave  for  breed  and  variety 
improvement.  The  theories  of  Francis  Galton,  the  re- 
searches of  Hugo  de  Vries,  and  the  actual  achievements 
of  Luther  Burbank  all  lead  to  more  faith  that  wealth 
may  be  increased  with  greater  raidity  by  breeding  than 
is  at  present  being  accomplished. 

Francis  Galton,  of  England,  and  other  naturalists 
with  a  taste  for  mathematical  processes  have  insti- 
tuted studies  of  living  organisms  in  which  measure- 
ments and  statistics  are  the  prominent  features.  A  new 
periodical  called  "Biometrica''  (measuring  living 
things)  has  recently  been  launched  in  London  to  give 
publicity  to  the  results  of  these  experimental  researches. 
That  paper  is  to  the  work  of  these  scientists  what  The 
Gazette  is  to  practical  breeders,  and  each  should  more 
fully  realize  the  point  of  view  of  the  other.  In  fact, 
has  not  the  time  come  when  practical  and  scientific  men 
interested  in  the  science  of  breeding-  should  form^^llv  and 
effectively  join  hands  in  pushing  forward  a  knowledge 
of  the  laws  of  heredity,  both  in  its  relation  to  the  evolu- 


30  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

tion  of  natural  species  and  to  the  artificial  evolution 
of  higher  types  of  economic  plants  and  animals? 

Books,  monographs  and  bulletins  reciting  the  re- 
sults of  experiments  in  those  laws  of  life  in  which  the 
breeder  is  interested  are  also  beginning  to  appear.  Ta 
illustrate  this  class  of  literature,  and  to  show  that 
such  experiments,  theoretical  studies  and  measurements 
have  value  in  the  study  of  living  things  as  well  as  in 
working  out  the  science  of  astronomy  or  mechanics,  tne 
following  example  is  given:  Quetelet  found  that  the 
law  of  error  applies  to  living  organisms  as  well  as 
to  other  phenomena.  To  illustrate  this  he  used  the 
heights  of  soldiers,  all  natives  of  the  one  country  and 
district.  If  arranged  in  a  row  from  the  shortest  to 
the  tallest  and  a  line  be  drawn  over  their  heads  these 
several  things  are  observed:  (a)  The  center  man  in 
the  line  represents  the  average  in  height,  (b)  For 
nearly  the  entire  length  the  line  is  almost  straight,  but 
descends  slightly,  (c)  At  the  lower  end  the  line  curves 
rapidly  downward,  (d)  At  the  upper. end  the  line 
curves  rapidly  upward. 

Yield  of  milk  in  dairy  cows,  speed  in  trotting  horses, 
strength  in  draft  horses,  the  thickness  of  lean  meat 
on  the  breast  of  Asiatic  fowls,  men's  capacity  for  music 
and  all  other  special  and  general  characteristics  seem 
subject  to  representation  by  the  same  curved  line.  Thai 
is,  in  the  stable  variety  or  species  the  many  do  not  vary 
greatly  from  the  average,  but  there  are  a  few  which  are 
weak  and  a  few  which  are  strong  in  each  quality.  Thus 
in  case  of  wheat  plants  grown  in  hills  4x4  inches  apart, 
one  plant  in  a  hill,  there  are  a  few  plants  in  a  hundred 
which  are  tall  and  a  few  which  are  short ;  some 
are  heavy  yielders,  others  light  yielders,  and  so 
on.  This  expression  of  the  law  of  variation  does 
not  apply  to  visible  qualities  alone,  but  to  all  qualities. 
Most  important  of  all,  it  applies  to  variation  itself. 
Most  species,  varieties,  families  and  individuals  of  ani- 


Pedigreed  Animals  and  Plants.  31 

tnals  and  plants  have  "blood"  which  is  average  in  its 
stability,  or  in  the  stockman's  term  in  its  ''prepotency/' 
A  term  coming  into  use  in  plant  breeding  where  som.e 
species  are  hermaphroditic  and  self-fertilized,  where 
the  word  prepotent  does  not  quite  fit  the  case,  is  cent- 
gener  power,  or  the  ability  to  produce  generations  of 
strong  and  valuable  progeny.  The  word  centgener, 
made  up  of  the  root  words  centum,  hundred,  and  gen- 
era, generation,  is  applied  to  the  large  group,  a  hundred, 
more  or  less  of  one  generation,  usually  from  a  single 
mother  plant,  but  may  be  used  in  animal  breeding  where 
the  measurements  may  be  based  on  the  average  value 
of  only  a  few,  or  many,  progeny.  Projected  efficiency 
is  also  a  recent  expression  which  may  most  forcefully 
express  the  idea  of  breeding  power  in  many  statements, 
and  is  also  a  useful  addition  to  the  language  of  the 
breeder. 

The  future  is  interested  in  selecting  from  among 
the  many  individuals  those  few  at  the  very  top  of 
the  curve  which  combine  in  their  inherited  makeup 
the  ability  surely  to  reproduce  the  many  superior  qual- 
ities which  must  be  correlated  to  give  excellence,  wheth- 
er for  specific  or  general  utility.  Thus  because  of  its  val- 
ue as  a  parent  plant,  Peter  Gideon's  original  tree  of  the 
Wealthy  apple  was  worth  millions.  Because  of  its 
centgener  power  the  mother  plant  from  which  "Minn. 
No.  163"  wheat  sprung  is  adding  10  per  cent  to  the 
yields  of  Minnesota  wheat  fields  as  rapidly  as  the  farm- 
ers can  substitute  it  for  the  wheats  in  common  use.  The 
germ  in  the  one  kernel  from  which  that  variety  sprung 
in  1892  contained  the  prepotency  which  is  now  spread 
over  60,000  acres,  and  in  five  years  more,  or  fifteen 
years  after  the  parent  seed  germinated,  its  progeny 
could  be  made  to  cover  the  wheat  area  of  the  group  of 
hard  spring  wheat  States,  increasing  the  value  of  the 
crop  many  millions  of  dollars. 

The  projected  efficiency  of  Messenger,  the  father 
of  the  American  trotting  horse,  was  wonderful.  Truly, 
there  is  power  and  value  in  certain  germs,  and  eflFective 


32  Breeding  Plants  and  Anhnals, 

methods  of  securing  such  germs  and  of  bringing  their 
progeny  into  general  use  are  of  vast  importance.  We 
need  to  breed  for  intrinsic  qualities ;  to  record  the  large 
values  of  authentic  pedigrees,  and  so  to  exploit  the 
values  of  the  best  breeding  stocks  that  the  people  will 
use  them. 

Francis  Galton  says  statistics  show  that  only  one 
man  in  about  5,000  rises  to  marked  prominence.     Man 
is   a   very   complicated   individual   and   the   successful 
man  must  have  correlated  to  this  nature  very  many 
qualities  so  com.bined  as  to  give  him  pronounced  abil- 
ities.    Galton  also  emphasized  the  fact  brought  out  by 
Wallace    that    Messenger    became    the    father    of   the 
American  trotter,  though  many   other   Thoroughbred 
horses  were  in  competition  with  him  in  the  early  efforts 
of  the  breeders  to  produce  trotters  by  using  running 
stallions    on    American    common    and    grade    mares. 
Messenger  evidently  had  that  strange  power  of  pre- 
potency which  resulted  in  his  blood  giving  the  form,  the 
fiber,  the  wind,   the  docility  mider  training  and  the 
instincts  to  contest  and  win  the  trotting  race.    He  was 
one  sire  in  thousands  whose  blood  flowed  powerfully 
toward  the  trotting  gait  through  generations  of  his  pro- 
.o:eny.     To  analyze  his  power  to  transmit  against  the 
blood  of  dams  or  to  "nick"  with  their  blood  is  a  pro- 
cess as  yet  not  fully  worked  out.    We  must  accept  the 
wonderful  fact,  hoping  that  it  may  some  day  be  better 
understood.      But   we   can   use   mahy   important   facts 
which  we  cannot  understand.    Seeds  germinate  and  why 
should  not  new  breeds  germinate?  Messenger  was  the 
first  seed  of  the  breed  known  as  the  American  trotter. 
I  understand  that  Prof,  de  Vries  has  deduced  evi- 
dence that  in  nature  species  are  not  always  developed 
by  gradual  evolution,  but  that  there  is  a  strong  element 
of  revolution,  an  occasional  marked  mutation  from  the 
species,  variety  or  breed.     No  one  familiar  with  the 
work  of  Darwin,  Mendel,  de  Vries  and  their  fellow 
workers  on  the  theory  of  heredity  can  believe  in  the 
old  theory  of  the  immutability  of  species.    Occasionally, 


Pedigreed  Animals  and  Plants.  33 

according  to  de  Vries'  theory,  there  is  an  occasional 
'  Messenger  among  wild  plants  or  among  wild  animals, 
which  dominates  or  is  prepotent  over  all  its  fellows  with 
which  it  crosses  and  there  is  thus  found  a  marked 
variation,  sometimes  a  new  species,  so  peculiarly  fitted 
to  survive  that  it  supplants  the  parent  form,  or  simply 
lives  beside  it.  And  certainly  this  revolutionary  phe- 
nomenon is  often  observed  in  our  cultivated  plants.  If 
nature  produces  a  peculiar  and  pretty  chrysanthemum 
some  man  is  sure  to  save  seeds  from  it.  If  it  is  prepo- 
tent in  its  peculiarity  or  if  it  produces  part  of  its  pro- 
geny of  a  peculiarly  valuable  type  the  gardener  or 
greenhouse  man  propagates  the  best,  and  possibly  with 
a  single  bound — and  that  based  on  an  accidental  varia- 
tion— he  distances  his  competitors  in  the  flower  trade 
of  a  city  and  a  new  variety  is  born. 

Some  of  the  great  Short-horn  and  Hereford  sires 
have  had  a  remarkable  influence  on  the  breed.  Sup- 
pose, as  has  been  done  in  case  of  some  new  varieties  of 
wheat,  an  entire  sub-breed  could  have  been  made  up 
of  the  blood  of  these  best  cattle.  A  new  Short-horn 
breed  made  up  of  the  blood  of  those  twenty  individuals 
of  the  breed  having  the  greatest  power  to  produce  valu- 
able cattle  would  be  worth  far  more  to  the  world  than 
is  that  splendid  breed  in  its  present  form.  How  can 
we  eliminate  the  blood  of  the  many  less  valuable  in- 
dividuals and  secure  in  suitable  combination  the  blood 
of  the  few  very  best  breeders  in  the  whole  breed  and 
multiply  this  blood  to  supply  the  entire  country  is  the 
great  question.  If  the  proof  of  the  values  of  these  best 
animals  was  put  into  authentic  figures,  serving  as  per- 
formance pedigrees,  would  their  progeny  not  bring  fab- 
ulous prices.  In  this  connection  a  remark  made  by  Prof. 
Curtiss  recently,  while  showing  me  his  experiment  w4th 
breeding  blue-gray  cattle,  is  worthy  of  repetition.  He 
said :  "Sotham  is  a  remarkable  breeder.  While  it  is 
recognized  that  the  success  of  every  noted  breeder  of 
cattle  has  been  based  on  the  remarkable  breeding  ability 
of  one  bull  secured  for  his  herd,  Sotham  has  had  two 


34  Breeding  Plants  and  Animak. 

remarkable  bulls/'  We  are  all  looking  for  a  Messenger 
or  a  Lord  Wilton.  As  Prof.  Hansen,  of  South  Dakota, 
the  foremost  breeder  of  hardy  fruits,  says :  ''We  are  all 
looking  for  Shakespeares  among  plants  and  animals." 
Luther  Burbank  writes  no  manuals  on  breeding 
plants.  With  his  own  hands  he  writes  his  manuals 
on  achievements  in  new  creations.  This  man  is  doing 
more  to  inspire  breeders  of  plants  and  animals  than 
any  dozen  writers.  His  is  a  working  philosophy.  It 
seems  to  him  mainly  art.  He  works  with  the  plants 
and  secures  marvelous  results.  Some  of  his  methods 
and  theories  he  has  not  interpreted  in  writing,  nor  or- 
ally. IJe  knows  more  than  he  tells.  The  plants  have 
taught  him  how  to  treat  them.  He  has  dealt  with  the 
plants  rather  than  interpreted  in  language  the  philoso- 
phy of  breeding.  His  simple  statement  that  the  breeder 
must  deal  with  immense  numbers  is  the  most  important 
factor  in  his  philosophy  and  in  his  work.  He  has  learned 
by  experience  that  the  breeder  must  find  that  rare  plant 
m  thousands,  or  in  hundreds  of  thousands,  which  com- 
bines the  desired  breeding  elements.  This  theory  leads 
him  to  grow  immense  numbers  of  plants  and  save  only 
the  few.  It  leads  him  to  creep  about  on  his  hands  and 
knees  among  wild  flowers,  hunting  for  that  rare  plant 
in  many  thousands  which  varies  in  the  desired  directiom 
It  induces  him  to  search  long  for  many  of  these  rare 
plants  that  he  may  grow  progeny  from  each  and  dis- 
<:ard  the  blood  of  all  but  the  very  few  which  prove  pre- 
potent, or  to  have  high  projected  efficiency  in  the  de- 
sired characteristics.  It  is  not  sufficient  that  a  plant  be 
found  with  some  desired  variation  in  its  individual  char- 
acter.   The  power  to  reproduce  that  character  in  a  more 


The  Shakespeares  of  Plants  and  Animals.        35 

or  less  constant  form  is  the  all-important  quality.  We 
need  not  merely  the  correlation  of  qualities  making  a 
desired  individual,  but  the  power  to  reproduce  such 
correlated  qualities  in  the  young.  It  is  not  strange  that 
only  one  in  thousands  or  in  tens  of  thjousands  carries 
that  exceedingly  complex  combination  of  characteristics 
which  makes  up  the  strains  of  blood  desired  for  a  given 
definite,  yet  often  trying  and  important  field  of  plant 
or  animal  production. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SELECTION    OF    FOUNDATION    STOCKS. 

In  the  case  of  wheat,  mentioned  in  previous  pages, 
the  height  of  the  plants  is  only  one  of  the  qualities  in 
which  there  is  variation.  There  are  also  a  few  plants 
which  yield  heavily  and  a  few  which  yield  but  little 
grain.  Likev\ase,  there  is  occasionally  a  plant  with  stif- 
fer  straw,  one  a  little  more  rust  resistant,  one  with  more 
or  tougher  gluten.  But  to  find  a  plant  in  which  are 
correlated  to  a  maximum  degree  all  these  desired  qual- 
ities thousands  must  be  examined.  And  to  find  one 
that  has  such  a  desirable  combination  of  good  qualities 
and  also  the  far  more  complex  and  important  quality 
of  breeding  power  or  projected  efficiency  in  transmit- 
ting the  combination,  it  would  seem  natural  that  many 
of  those  with  the  desired  individuality  must  be  tried  as 
breeders. 

The  problem  is  very  complex  if  we  take  the  case 
of  plants  which  are  open  pollinated,  as  corn;  or  of 
animals,  which  also  are  reproduced  only  by  the  sexual 
union  of  the  two  individuals.  Here  the  strong  individ- 
uality of  the  prepotent  plant  or  animal  must  be  able 
with  its  combination  of  desirable  qualities  to  override 
the  qualities  of  the  other  sex  with  which  it  is  bred,  or 
it  must  so  "nick"  with  the  qualities  of  the  other  mem- 
ber of  the  cross  as  to  make  a  new  combination  of  value. 
This  feature  of  the  complexity  of  the  problem  is  here 
dwelt  upon  to  lead  men  to  see  that  not  by  easy  or  short 
methods  are  important  breed  or  variety  improvements 
to  be  made.  Large  numbers  must  be  tested,  measured, 
recorded  and  averages  made  and  the  blood  of  only  the 
very  few  utilized  in  breed  or  variety  formation,  or  in 
material  and  radical  variety  or  breed  improvement. 
This  general  proposition  is  borne  out  by  the  fact  that 


^S  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

most  of  the  new  varieties  of  cultivated  plants  have  been 
accidentally  discovered  rather  than  the  results  of  efforts 

of  the  plant  breeder.  Those  who  have  worked  syste- 
matically have  usually  confined  their  observations  to 
hundreds,  or  at  most  to  thousands,  in  their  flower  beds 
or  green-house  benches,  or  in  their  vegetable  gardens. 
Producers  generally,  on  the  other  hand,  annually  have 
under  review  hundreds  and  thousands  and  millions  of 
plants  in  gardens,  orchards  and  fields.  Here  the  curious 
or  the  trained  eye  catches  the  occasipnal  plant  which 
widely  departs  from  type.  The  new  form  may  prove 
so  valuable  that  it  is  propagated,  its  progeny  selected 
to  type,  if  need  be,  and  eventually  developed  into  a 
commercial  sort.  But  the  trouble  is  that  the  world  is 
not  receiving  enough  of  these  accidental  sports.  Peo- 
ple are  not  alert  enough  to  discern  all  such  plants,  and 
too  few  are  expert  in  so  propagating  and  selecting  such 
new  stocks  as  to  make  of  them  the  most  useful  varieties. 
Besides,  chance  discoveries  are  too  often  lost  by  inef- 
ficient means  of  testing  or  by  distributing  them  under  a 
plan  which  will  fail  to  induce  people  to  use  them  in  pre- 
ference to  inferior  forms.  What  nature,  and  chance, 
and  ordinary  men,  and  common  methods  are  now  ac- 
complishing in  a  slow  way  is  tmsatis factory.  Enterprise 
system,  capital,  extensive  co-operation  and  large  pat- 
ronage must  be  brought  to  operate  and  accomplish  in 
an  adequate,  modern,  scientific  way  the  rapid  and  pro- 
found improvement  of  our  crops  and  animals.  If  one- 
fourth  as  much  enterprise,  thought,  energy  and  money 
as  is  now  devoted  to  mechanical  invention  could  be 
diverted  into  study,  experimentation  and  effort  in  sci- 
entific plant  and  animal  breeding,  our  country  would 
be  as  famous  for  its  crops  and  animals  as  it  now  is  for 
its  bridges,  buildings,  machine  shops  and  implements. 

Breeding  should  be  made  more  scientific.  Breed- 
ers of  animals  who  have  spent  a  lifetime  in  building 
up  fine  herds  or  flocks  will,  no*  doubt,  feel  that  these 
articles  will  not  especially  aid  in  solving  their  prob- 
lems.    Possibly  some  may  feel  that  I  have  made  the 


Selection  of  Foundation  Stocks,  39 

problem  look  even  more  difficult  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  practical  man  than  it  has  heretofore  appeared. 
But  the  breeding  fraternity  as  a  whole  wants  the  facts.' 
The  broad  historical  fact  stands  out  clearly  that  if  we 
simply  breed  for  generations  from  the  best  appearing 
individuals,  we  make  sure  progress,  but  it  comes  at  too 
slow  a  pace,  and  the  final  result  is  not  as  large  an  im- 
provement as  we  should  like.  We  must  not  only  pick 
out  the  superior  individuals,  but  the  blood  of  those 
which  have  proved  in  their  young  to  have  the  very 
highest  breeding  m.ust  be  sought  with  far  more  system 
and  persistency  and  made  to  more  rapidly  crowd  out 
the  commoner  blood  of  the  breed.  The  scrub  should 
be  more  universally  replaced  by  pure,  strong  blood; 
and  performance  pedigrees  built  up  on  tests  of  intrinsic 
values  must  be  more  generally  employed  to  accomplish 
that  result. 

In  some  species  of  plants  many  variations  are  found 
by  those  who  deal  with  them  in  practical  production,  as 
in  case  of  geraniums  and  chrysanthemums  where  the 
gardener  views  and  handles  each  individual  plant.  In 
other  easels,  as  in  wheat,  the  stems  or  culms  from  the 
separate  seeds  are  so  interwoven  in  the  field  that  the 
individual  plant  cannot  be  separately  observed.  In 
species  like  wheat,  timothy  and  oats,  methods  must  be 
devised  under  which  each  seed  may  be  separately  plant- 
ed, that  the  individual  plant  may  be  studied.  In  case 
of  animals,  likewise,  methods  of  comparison  must  be 
devised  so  that  each  animal  can  be  separately  ob- 
served and  a  record  made  of  its  qualities.  Thus 
the  qualities  of  ^the  parent,  the  qualities  of  its 
progeny  and  the  average  quality  of  fraternity  groups 
of  progeny  may  be  recorded  so  as  to  compare  not  only 
the  individuality  but  the  breeding  power  of  the  respec- 
.  tive  parents. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

WHEAT  BREEDING. 

Wheat  breeding  is  one  line  which  has  been  taken 
tip  in  earnest  and  a  discussion  based  on  present  develop- 
ments along  this  line  will  here  serve  useful  purposes.  It 
will  show  that  there  is  wide  scope  for  skilful  art  and  for 
scientific  research  in  developing  the  technical  part  of 
breeding.  Here  also  may  be  illustrated  the  fact  that 
through  plant  and  animal  breeding  much  wealth  can  be 
added  to  the  country.  Wheat  is  one  of  the  best  species 
with  which  to  conduct  statistical  experiments  on  the 
theory  of  breeding  and  in  studies  concerning  heredity. 
It  has  numerous  characteristics  which  are  capable  of 
measurement;  e.  g.,  weight  of  grain  from  a  single 
plant,  average  weight  of  kernels,  quality  of  grain, 
height  of  plants  and  days  required  to  mature;  and  its 
seeds  may  be  preserved  for  several  3^ears  that  original 
stocks  may  be  compared  with  improved  forms.  And  in 
h3^bridizing  its  distinctive  characteristics,  as  bearded 
or  awnless,  hairy  or  smooth  chaff,  color  of  chaff,  anc} 
color  of  berry,  serve  to  identify  strains  of  blood.  The 
fact  that  new  varieties  of  wheat  which  yield  even  lo 
per  cent,  additional  value  per  acre  may  be  rapidly  mul- 
tiplied so  as  to  make  that  increase  apply  to  farms,  coun- 
ties and  states,  makes  the  problem  of  practical  wheat 
breeding  one  not  only  of  scientific  interest,  but  of  vast 
commercial  importance. 

A  discussion  of  wheat  breeding  as  carried  on  at 
the  Minnesota  Experiment  Station  will  serve  to  i!lu<?- 
trate  how  efforts  are  being  made  to  meet  some  prob- 
lems. Here  (a)  the  varieties  proving  best  .upon  test 
are  secured  for  foundation  stocks;  (b)  large  numbers 
of  individuals  are  compared;  (c)  superior  plants  are 
selected;    (d)    the  breeding  powers  of  many  of  these 


4 2  Breeding  Plants  ana  Animals, 

superior  plants  are  tested;  (e)  the  blood  of  those  prov- 
ing strongest  is  saved,  and  (f)  by  the  aid  of  records 
of  large  yield  and  good  quality,  as  shown  in  milling  and 
baking  tests,  the  best  blood  is  accredited,  and  (g)  busi- 
ness methods  are  used  to  induce  farmers  generally  to 
grow  the  improved  varieties  in  place  of  the  common 
kinds.  Niimerous  experiments  on  the  theory  of  breed- 
ing are  also  being  carried  on,  some  of  which  will  be 
mentioned  in  succeeding  articles. 

The  experiment  station  or  the  large  seed  firms  in 
starting  to  breed  wheat  may  properly  collect  and  tr}*- 
many  varieties  in  order  to  secure  the  best  foundation 
stocks.  The  farmer  cannot  usually  afford  elaborate 
field  and  milling  tests  to  begin  with  and  he  should  con- 
fine his  attention  almost  exclusively  to  the  improvement 
of  those  few  varieties  which  are  successfully  grown 
commercially  in  the  region  he  wishes  to  supply  with 
seed  wheat.  Experiment  stations  and  seed  firms  also 
can  best  secure  varieties  which  they  may  first  improve 
by  taking  up  simple  and  quick  methods  of  improving 
the  standard  wheats  already  grown  by  the  farmers. 
Longer  and  more  thorough  processes  of  selection,  also 
hybridization,  followed  by  selection,  should  also  be 
begun  early,  but  the  results  of  these  will  later  come  into 
available  quantities  for  distribution.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  in  this  connection  that  each  state  has  only  a  very 
few  varieties  of  wheat  grown  in  commercial  quantities 
and  the  same  is  true  of  oats,  barley  and  rye.  This 
makes  it  easy  to  select  the  few  varieties  to  be  used  in 
improvements  by  breeding.  Moreover  it  is  easier 
beginning  to  sell  an  improved  variety  of  a  kind  of  known 
character  and  quality  than  new  and  untried  forms.  It 
is  of  especial  importance  to  experiment  stations  that  the 
new  varieties  they  first  multiply  for  distribution  be 
kinds  not  too  strange,  differing  for  instance,  only  in 
yield,  that  they  may  at  once  become  popular  with  the 
farmers,  grain  merchants  and  millers.  It  is  an  advan- 
tage to  distribute  new  varieties  in  the  order  of  their  val- 
ue.   Improved  varieties  make  a  market  for*  varieties  still 


Wheat  Breeding,  4j 

more  improved.  It  would  be  quite  impracticable  to  sell 
a  new  variety  after  selling  others  superior  to  it.  It  has 
been  found  quite  practicable  at  the  Minnesota  Experi- 
ment Station  to  have  a  progressive  series  of  varieties  of 
wheat  coming  on  for  sale  to  the  growers  of  pure  bred 
seeds  who  are  taking  up  the  work  of  multiplying  for 
sale  the  new  pure  bred  field  crops  originated  by  the 
experiment  stations,  as  pure  bred  stockmen  grow  for 
sale  animals  as  improved  by  a  Cruikshank  or  other 
breeder.  These  men  pay  a  good  price  to  the  station  for 
new  things  and  having  once  made  a  nice  profit  from 
raising  one  of  our  new  varieties  and  selling  it  to  their 
neighbors  for  seed  they  are  the  station's  best  customers 
when  it  invites  them  to  co-operate  in  distributing  anoth- 
er new  variety  which  promises  to  be  of  still  greater 
value. 

As  there  appears  an  advantage  in  taking  up  first  the 
simpler  methods  of  breeding  wheat,  plans  of  originat- 
ing by  selection  will  precede  the  discussion  of  hybri- 
dizing and  selection  combined;  and  in  each  of  these 
two  general  plans  the  simpler  methods  will  be  followed 
by  those  more  complex.  While  these  suggestions  may 
be  open  to  the  criticism  that  they  are  given  from  the 
point  of  view  of  an  experiment  station  worker,  the  ef- 
fort will  be  to  have  them  apply  to  farmers  and  to  large 
seed  growing  firms  as  well. 

Improve  Wheat  by  Selecting  Large  Spikes, — The 
experiences  of  Maj.  Hallet  of  England,  Dr.  Rimpau  of 
Germany,  Zavitz  of  Ontario,  Shepperd  of  North  Dako- 
ta, Haynes  of  North  Dakota,  Soule  of  Tennessee,  W^ll- 
man  of  Minnesota,  the  present  writer  and  a  number  of 
others  demonstrate  that  the  selection  of  the  best  spikes, 
or  heads,  from  a  field  of  wheat  will  work  some  improve- 
ment of  yield.  The  farmer  who  has  a  superior  variety 
of  wheat  and  wishes  to  sell  seed  should  at  least  select 
the  best  heads  from  the  field  each  year  in  quantity  to 
multiply  in  one  or  two  years  so  as  to  grow  his  entire 
crop  from  this  selected  stock,  pursuing  some  such  plan 
as  follows:   The  first  year  a  man  who  raises  annually 


44  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

twenty  acres  of  wheat  should  go  through  his  field  and 
pick  cut  a  sufficient  number  of  the  best  spikes  to  make, 
when  shelled  out,  a  half  bushel  of  wheat.  The  second 
year  this  seed  should  be  carefully  graded  so  as  to  se- 
cure the  heaviest  large  kernels  and  sown  as  a  stock  seed 
plot  on  the  best  part  of  the  wheat  field.  This  crop 
should  be  saved  for  seeding  the  entire  field  the  third 
year  so  that  improved  seed  may  be  grown  for  sale  the 
fourth  spring.  This  should  be  sold  under  a  number  as 
Jones'  Fife  No.  3,  assuming  that  Jones  has  already  on 
his  farm  two  wheats,  Jones'  No.  t  (Fife)  and  Jones' 
No.  2  (Blue  Stem)  introduced  from  other  farms  or 
perchance  from  a  seed  firm  or  from  an  experiment 
station. 

It  has  been  found  a  good  rule  to  give  to  every  stock 
of  grain  which  has  been  improved  a  new  number  or  in 
some  other  way  to  distinguish  it  so  that  farmers  will 
keep  track  of  that  identical  blood.  This  is  especially  im- 
portant if  the  yield  is  known  to  be  good  and  in  case  the 
seed  is  lost  the  same  stock,  subvarietv  or  variety,  as  the 
case  may  be,  can  be  again  secured  from  the  originator 
or  from  some  one  else  who  has  kept  it  pure  and  true  to 
name.  The  crops  grown  for  seed  should  be  planted  on 
fields  free  from  those  weeds  the  seeds  of  which  cannot 
be  completely  cleaned  out  of  the  seed  wheat;  the  seed 
wheat  should  follow  a  crop  which  leaves  the  soil  well 
prepared  for  that  grain.  The  seed  grower  needs  to  be 
a  live-stock  grower  so  as  to  keep  his  lands  fertile  and 
so  that  his  fields  may  be  under  a  system  of  rotation 
which  will  keep  the  land  free  from  weeds  and  in  heart 
for  crops  of  plump,  strong,  fine-looking  seeds.  Not 
wheat  farmers,  but  stockmen,  are  the  best  men  to  grow 
seeds.  Live-stock  on  the  farm  and  crops  fed  out  to  live- 
stock are  necessary  for  growing  grain  for  market  on 
part  of  the  fields  of  a  farm ;  and  for  growing  seeds  to 
sell  for  planting;  stock  and  manure-making  crops  are 
doubly  necessary. 

The  fields  of  seed  grown  for  sale  should  be  har- 
vested at  once  when  fully' ripe  and  the  grain  should  be 


-  Wheat  Breeding,  45 

most  carefully  shocked,  stored  in  stacks  or  barns, 
threshed  and  stored  in  bins  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
seeds  will  be  thoroughly  dry,  and  kept  dry,  so  that  their 
full  power  to  germinate  and  produce  fine  vigorous 
heavy  yielding  plants  may  not  be  diminished.  Farmers 
can  well  afford  to  pay  for  fresh  improved  potent  blood 
in  seed  grain  which  has  been  so, preserved  that  every 
kernel  retains  its  full  power  of  producing  yield  and 
quality.  At  best  our  seeds  are  subjected  to  many  vicis- 
situdes after  they  are  planted  and  any  injury  from  be- 
ing wet  in  shock  or  bin  makes  them  less  able  to  germin- 
ate under  unfavorable  conditions.  And  many  kernels 
which  are  able  barely  to  germinate  are  so  injured  in 
vitality,  or  the  store  of  food  in  the  kernel  is  so  reduced 
in  amount  or  in  quality,  that  the  young  plant  is  greatly 
handicapped.  The  breed  or  variety  of  superior  power 
and  value  when  given  the  best  conditions  as  care  of 
seed,  good  soil,  proper  cultivation  and  excellent  climate, 
will  produce  the  maximum  yield. 

Future  Years. — Each  succeeding  year  a  sufficient 
number  of  the  best  spikes  to  supply  a  half  bushel  of 
seed  may  be  selected  from  the  field  in  which  stock  seed 
is  being  grov/n  or  from  the  general  field  wherein  seed 
for  the  market  is  being  produced  or  this  work  may  be 
inaugurated  only  once  every  two  or  three  years.  This 
seed  should  be  used  to  plant  each  year  a  stock  seed 
•plat  to  produce  seed  for  the  field  in  which  the  next 
year's  seed  wheat  is  to  be  grown  for  sale.  Experimen- 
tation is  needed  to  determine  whether  the  selection  of 
the  best  heads  may  be  permanently  used  in  improving 
a  variety  of  wheat.  It  will  probably  conduce  to  the 
production  of  only  one  or  a  few  culms  and  heads  per 
plant,  reducing  the  number  of  stools  which  spring  from 
a  single  seed,  or  decrease  the  plant's  stooling  power. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  the  selection  of  the  largest 
upper  ears  of  corn  has  reduced  the  dent  varieties  of  corn 
and  also  some  of  the  flint  varieties  from  several-eared 
to  one-eared  kinds. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  some  of  the  more  complex 


40  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals. 

plans  roughly  outlined  will  better  serve  permanently  to 
make  new  varieties,  and  even  to  improve  old  ones, 
though  this  simple  yet  effective  plan  can  best  be  em- 
ployed by  many  farmers  who  wish  to  improve  for  sale 
a  variety  which  they  believe  is  better  than  their  neigh- 
bors can  secure  elsewhere.  Too  much  must  not  be 
presumed  from  breeding  under  this  plan,  especially  if 
the  yields  of  the  resulting  varieties  are  not  really 
tested  by  adequate  field  trials.  Where  an  experiment 
station  follows  this  or  any  other  method  of  breeding 
the  resulting  varieties,  where  practicable,  should  be 
tested  near  the  parent  variety  or  other  standard  varie- 
ties which  they  are  designed  to  replace.  Milling,  bak- 
ing and  other  laboratory  tests  where  radical  changes 
are  made  by  breeding  should  also  be  made.  These  final 
tests  give  figures  of  performing  ability  which  may  be 
used  as  a  powerful  aid  in  selling  the  new  variety.  On 
the  other  hand  they  may  show  that  the  new  variety  is 
not  as  valuable  as  the  old,  in  which  case  it  should  not 
be  distributed.  I  realize  that  this- contemplates  a  high 
standard  of  excellence  in  wheat  breeding  and  in  seed 
wheat  growing,  but  I  believe  the  American  experiment 
stations  can  and  will  lead  in  removing  the  seed  business 
from  free  seed  packages  on  the  part  of  the  Government 
and  from  selling  by  mean?  of  overdone  word  and  pencil 
pictures  on  the  part  of  seed  dealers.  Statistical  methods 
in  breeding  and  in  selling  are  revolutionizing  both  plant 
and  animal  breeding. 

Selecting  the  best  heads  of  wheat  wherever  carefully 
tried  has  given  an  increase  in  the  crop.  Though  that 
increase  is  on  the  average  small  it  would  seem  quite 
legitimate  where  tests  of  yield_can  not  be  made  to  sell 
seed  thus  grown  from  common  varieties  known  to  excel 
even  before  the  product  of  the  new  variety  has  been 
grown  sufficiently  long  to  be  tested.  The  present  al- 
ways seems  even  more  important  than  the  future  ard 
the  improvements  easily  made,  though  they  be  very 
modest,  should  be  made  at  once  available  for  the  farm- 
ers to  use.    The  more  pronounced  improvements  which 


Wheat  Breeding,  47 

can  be  made  by  longer,  more  expensive  and  more  com- 
plicated methods  possible  on  a  state  experiment  farm 
can  be  paid  for  from  the  profits  of  this  first  work.  The 
results  of  hybridizing  are  sometimes  misleading,  while 
varieties  produced  by  selection  from  standard  sorts  are 
nearly  always  reliable.  Jf  carefully  grown,  stored, 
cleaned  and  sold,  seeds  selected  as  indicated  from  stan- 
dard varieties  give  the  grower,  whether  a  farm^er^'r 
seed  firm  or  an  experiment  station,  the  confidence  of  the 
farmers. 

These  varieties  sold  in  nice  form  serve  to  use  in 
learning  how  to  advertise,  sell,  pack,  ship  and  to  follow 
the  resulting  benefits  frorn  the  distribution.  The  vields 
secured  by  purchasers  of  new  varieties  may  also  serve 
as  a  source  of  information  of  yields  and  quality  which 
may  be  used  as  testimonials  to  encourage  others  to  look 
to  the  breeder  for  superior  seeds.  Even  the  seed  breeding 
scientist  at  the  state  experiment  station  will  find  many 
perplexing  questions  in  the  work  of  placing  his  new 
varieties  before  the  public.  Pie  may  not  want  especial 
financial  returns  for  the  station,  but  he  does  want  the 
value  of  his  varieties  fully  recognized  and  he  is  not 
doing  his  duty  to  his  institution  unless  he  secures  for  it 
just  recognition  of  any  improvement  made  whether  of 
scientific  or  of  economic  value.  But  the  important  point 
is  that  the  facts  as  to  average  yield  of  value  per  acre  of 
new  kinds  be  so  collected,  tabulated  and  advertised  that 
the  conservatism  of  farmers  will  be  overcome  and  that 
they  will  be  induced  to  adopt  the  better  varieties  and 
widely  use  them.  It  may  be  that  the  new  variety  pro- 
duced by  the  practical  farmer  is  best  sold  through  seed 
firms,  but  even  then  the  breeder  needs  experience  and 
knowledge  of  how  best  to  deal  with  them  and  advertise 
his  varieties  so  that  the  dealer  may  bring  the  improved 
seeds  into  general  use  to  the  profit  of  breeder,  dealer 
and  grower. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

METHODS  OF  PLANTING  NURSERY  WHEAT. 

The  method  of  breeding  wheat  outlined  in  previous, 
pages  inay  result  in  an  average  increase  of  5  to  lo  per 
cent,  over  large  areas  while  occasionally  no  increase 
results.  But  to  secure  more  radical  increase  more  ef- 
fective plans  may  be  pursued,  requiring  more  of  meth- 
od, detail  and  time.  In  the  plan  already  outlined  the 
improvement  is  secured  by  choosing  the  best  heads. 
These  may  be  from  seeds  which,  on  account  of  produc- 
ing only  one  or  two  culms,  could  develop  one  strong 
head.  It  is  probable  that  selecting  too  large  heads  for 
a  long  series  of  years  might  reduce  the  stooling  habit. 
This  might  result  in  reduced  yields,  especially  in  years 
when  climatic  and  soil  conditions  are  unfavorable  to 
stooling,  which  condition  frequently  occurs  in  case  of 
spring  wheat.  On  the  other  hand  a  variety  so  bred  <is 
to  produce  only  two  or  three  large  culms,  instead  of 
dissipating  its  energies  on  a  number  of  small  culms 
with  no  heads,  might  require  more  seed  to  the  acre  and 
have  the  advantage,  providing  more  seed  were  used  per 
acre,  thus  diepending  on  more  primary  culms  and  fewer 
seeds.  Besides,  more  pounds  of  seed  per  acre  give 
more  food  to  the  plantlets,  making  them  more  indepen- 
dent of  the  soil  food  during  the  earliest  stages  of 
growth.  An  experiment  now  under  way  may  later  on 
indicate  the  solution  to  this  point.  These  thoughts  il- 
lustrate that  we  need  to  better  know  the  theory  of 
breeding,  and  more  experimenting  on  the  theory  of 
breeding  is  needed.  Actual  knowledge  of  these  seem- 
ingly minor  matters  often  is  of  great  importance  in 
practical  breeding. 

But  try  as  we  may  to  select  superior  heads  in  :he 
field  and  superior  berries  in  the  bin,  we  come  around 


50  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals, 

finally  to  the  individual  wheat  plant  as  the  unit.  Just 
as  in  animals,  so  in  plants  we  must  record  and  compare 
the  breeding  powers  of  the  individuals.  The  group  of 
several  culms  from  the  single  parent  seed,  each  bearmg 
a  spike  of  wheat,  constitute  the  plant.  The  spike  or 
ear  of  wheat,  generally  called  head,  is  no  more  the 
plant  unit  than  is  one  of  the  several  ears  on  a  branching 
stalk  of  popcorn.  In  breeding  plants  we  deal  with  blood 
lines  just  as  we  do  in  breeding  animals.  Since  in  the 
thickly-sown  wheat  field  at  harvest  time  we  cannot  dis- 
cern the  culms  arising  from  one  seed  which  are  inter- 
woven with  the  culms  from  another  seed,  wheat  must 
be  grown  in  hills,  one  seed  in  a  hill,  that  one  plant 
may  be  compared  with  another.  It  has  been  found  by 
both  formal  and  extensive  practical  experimentation 
that  4x4  inches  is  a  suitable  distance  to  gro-  'vmg 
wheat,,  and  5x5  inches  winter  wheat,  where  the  individ- 
ual plants  are  to  be  compared.  Wheats  thus  planted  in 
plots  and  the  entire  plants  compared  are  bred  on  a  far 
different  basis  than  wheat  bred  by  selecting  out  the  best 
heads  in  the  field  or  by  selecting  out  the  best  kernels  by 
means  of  the  fanning  mill.  Those  methods  are  wcrth 
while  and  should  be  carefully  followed  in  general  farm 
practice  and  by  all  wheat  seed  growers  and  particularly 
in  case  of  new  varieties  which  have  had  the  abnormal 
quality  of  high  yielding  made  still  more  abnormal  either 
by  selection  or  by  hybridizing  aided  by  selection.  But 
nursery  breeding  as  described  in  future  pages  is  very 
much  more  important  as  a  method  for  wheat  improve- 
ment. 

In  1893  Henry  Vilmorin,  the  great  Paris  seedsman 
and  plant  scientist,  said  that  "wheat  flowers  are  nearly 
alw^ays  self-pollinated,  not  one  in  ten  thousand  being 
fertilized  by  pollen  from  another  plant.''  Formal  ex- 
perimentation shows  that  his  statement  is  substantially 
true.  This  fact  makes  wheat  breeding  a  very  unique 
problem,  although  many  other  plants  are  also  commonly 
self-fertilized.  Talk  about  inbreeding,  here  is  the  most 
incestuous  of  inbreeding!     Self-breeding  is  the  almost 


Methods  of  Breeding  Nursery  Wheat.  51 

universal  rule,  the  stigma  or  female  organ  receiving  the 
pollen  or  male  element  from  the  anthers  of  the  same 
floret.  Wheat  thrives  under  this  closest  of  close 
breeding  and  when  crosses  are  made,  in  many  if  not  in* 
most  cases  the  average  of  the  progeny  is  poorer  than 
the  average  of  the  parents.  Darwin  might  well  say 
that  wheat  often  seems  to  abhor  crossing.  His  dictum 
that  plants  and  animals  abhor  self  or  very  close  breed- 
ing might  m.ore  broadly  cover  the  facts  if  stated  in  seme 
such  form  as  follows :  Plants  and  animals  abhor  radical 
changes  in  their  accustomed  habits  as  to  the  closeness 
or  wideness  of  their  relationships  of  parentage.  Thus 
in  corn,  where  comparatively  few  of  the  flowers  re- 
ceive pollen  from  the  same  plant,  self-fertilization-  and 
presumably  breeding  between  close  relatixDnships  great- 
ly reduce  the  productiveness  of  the  plants,  while  close 
fertilized  species  are  not  injured  even  by  self  fertiliza- 
tion. Because  wheat  is  close- fertilized  it  is  peculiarly 
adapted  to  use  in  illustrating  some  problems  in  breeding 
and  is  proving  a  useful  living  organism  in  developing 
statistical  methods  in  breeding  and  in  studying  some 
problems  in  heredity. 

To  study  individual  plants  of  many  species  of  plants 
and  to  use  them  in  large  numbers  in  pedigreed  breeding 
and  to  carry  on  statistical  studies  with  plants  a  method 
of  planting  and  a  system  of  records  have  been  devised. 
The  seeds  of  wheat  and  other  small  grains  are  planted 
in  beds  5x42  feet  in  area.  In  case  of  wheat  the  hills 
are  4x4  inches  apart  and  one  seed  in  a  place,  or  two  or 
three  seeds  are  planted  and  then  thinned  to  one  plant 
in  a  hill.  In  case  the  viability  of  the  seeds  has  been 
impaired  planting  two  or  three  seeds  insures  a  full 
stand,  but  great  care  is  necessary  to  thin  to  one  plant  in 
a  hill,  as  hills  with  two  plants  would  wrongfully  be 
chosen  as  the  best  in  the  plot.  During  the  past  eleven 
years  approximately  a  million  plants  of  the  various 
field  crops  have  Jhus  been  grown  individually  in  hills, 
and  from  necessity  a  system  of  planting  and  rccor^ls  has 
been  evolved.    The  250,000  plants  now  in  the  field  crop 


52  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals, 

breeding  nurseries  at  the  Minnesota  Experiment  Sta- 
tion could  not  be  managed  as  one  of  the  several  lines  of 
work  there  in  progress  were  not  a  system  used  and 
trained  men  employed  in  carrying  out  the  details. 
Methods. of  planting  have  been  evolved  which  greatly 
expedite  the  work  and  in  many  cases  place  the  seeds  in 
the  soil  under  the  most  favorable  conditions.  Wheat  and 
other  small  grains  are  planted  4  or  5  inches  apart  each 
way,  timothy,  soy  beans  and  white  beans  a  foot  apart 
each  way,  and  alfalfa  and  red  clover  two  feet  apart  each 
way,  while  field  peas,  bromus,  and  white  clover  are 
planted  three  feet  apart.  Distances  and  depths  to  plant 
are  only  tentatively  determined  and  those  found  best 
in  Minnesota  would  not  prove  best  in  all  localities.  The 
depth  to  plant  the  seeds  must  be  regulated  very  much 
by  the  conditions  of  the  soil  and  climate.  In  most  cases 
the  figures  may  be  taken  as  averages,  planting  shallower 
for  early  .spring  with  cold  soil  and  wet  weather  condi- 
tions and  deeper  for  late  spring  with  drouthy  open-soil 
conditions.  The  planting  of  wheat  is  done  in  carefully- 
prepared  beds,  preferably  on  land  which  was  bare  fol- 
lowed with  frequent  cultivation  the  previous  year  to  re- 
duce to  a  minimum  the  insect  enemies  and  to  furnish  a 
fine  seed  bed  easily  made  mellow  and  uniform  in  tex- 
ture. The  stocks  of  wheat  are  planted  in  beds,  both  to 
admit  of  clear  demarkation  of  plots  in  note-taking  and 
to  provide  slightly  depressed  paths  to  prevent  rains 
from  washing  across  the  plots  and  to  serve  as  paths  for 
workmen  who  must  do  much  hand  work  in  planting, 
cultivating,  note-taking  and  harvesting. 

Since  wheat  roots  spread  widely  it  has  been  found 
necessary  to  discard  the  outer  two  rows  of  the  bed.  or 
plat,  in  some  theoretical  experiments.  In  many  cases  il 
has  been  found  convenient  to  place  between  the  difiPer- 
ent  stocks  of  wheat  two  rows  of  variety  differing  in 
general  appearance,  so  that  these  rows  may  be  cut  oat 
before  harvest,  that  the  plats  may  be  thus  set  apart  by 
these  narrow  alleys  so  as  to  make  note  taking  easier, 
each  plat  standing  out  by  itself.     All  these  are  called 


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p  o  o  o 


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o.  o 


o  o  o  o  o  o  o 
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Fig.  1.     Method  of  placing  plants  in  hills. 


Fig.  No.  2.  Nursery  planting  machine  without  tent.  The 
man  sitting  drops  a  seed  in  each  of  the  14  cups  and  dumps 
them  in  14  tubes.  The  man  at  the  lever  throws  the  machine 
forward  four  inches  at  a  time,  thus  planting  the  seeds  in 
squares  4x4  inches. 


^^H| 

^^^^■r 

^  jppn 

'■^^^^^^S 

o 

o 


s 

?; 


Methods  of  Breeding  Nursery  Wheat  53 

border  plants  and  are  cut  off  with  a  hand  sickle  and 
sheep  shears  and  discarded  before  taking  the  harvesting 
notes.  As  many  of  the  plots  consist  of  a  hundred  plants 
of  one  generation  th'e  removal  of  the  side  and  crosf 
border  rows  causes  the  little  plots  forty  inches  square 
or  the  longer  plots  to  stand  out  distinctly  to  be  judged 
and  notes  made  of  each  plot  as  a  definite  unit,  often  a 
fraternity  group  from  a  single  mother  plant:  Fig.  i 
illustrates  the  method  of  placing  plants  in  hills  and 
grouping  them  in  beds.  Originally  these  plots  were 
planted  by  hand  in  cross  marks  made  in  the  soil,  a  plan 
still  used  in  case  of  plants  which  must  be  planted  a  foot 
or  more  apart.  A  mechanical  method  of  planting-  has 
been  in  course  of  evolution  for  some  years  and  has  been 
so  far  perfected  that  it  saves  half  the  immense  labor  of 
planting.  With  the  machine  illustrated  in  Fig.  2  the 
seeds  are  planted  very  regularly  in  the  squares  at  a 
uniform  depth  and  so  rapidly  that  with  one  or  more 
machines  large  plant-breeding  nurseries  may  be  put  in 
early  in  the  spring.  In.  Fig.  3  the  machine  is  shown 
covered  with  a  tent  put  on  simply  to  prevent  the  wind 
from  scattering  the  seeds.  This  makes  it  possible  to  . 
plant  the  wheat,  oats,  barley,  flax  and  other  species 
which  are  planted  in  close  hills  during  windv  da}'^ 
The  still  days  are  then  available  for  the  early  planting 
of  timothy,  clover,  alfalfa  and  other  small  seeds  ^vln'ch 
are  planted  far  apart  and  by  hand.  Thus  all  seeds  for 
early  planting  in  the  season  are  gotten  into  the  soil 
when  the  conditions  are  most  favorable.  Here  at  the 
North  the  spring  opens  late,  but  suddenly  and  the  tran- 
sition to  summer  conditions  of  heat  and  often  drouth 
covers  a  very  short  period,  making  early  planting  of 
small  grains,  grasses  and  some  clovers  very  desirable. 

At  either  side  of  the  plot,  5x42  feet  in  area  is  3 
track  forty-five  feet  long  made  up  of  1x8  boards,  the 
two  tracks  being  bolted  at  either  end  to  cross  pieces  to 
hold  them  in  place.  These  cross  pieces  give  sixty-two 
inches  between  the  tracks,  allowing  room  for  fifteen 
rows  four  inches  apart  of  grain  to  be  planted  at  once, 


54  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals, 

oi  five  rows  a  foot  apart  may  be  planted.  By  discard- 
ing the  outer  two  rows  on  either  side  there  are  eleven 
rows  left.  By  leaving  off  one  row  in  planting,  the  little 
plots  may  be  blocked  out  ten  hills'  square,  loo  plants  in 
each.  But  as  some  hills  are  usually  blank,  necessitating 
counting  the  actual  number  of  plants  harvested  la  the 
centgener  trials,  there  is  no  special  advantage  in  having 
the  plots  exactly  ten  planks  wide.  Boards  h*^-^  sled 
runners  resting  on  the  track  carry  the  machine.  A  sys- 
tem of  levers  enables  an  operator  to  place  grapples  in 
holes  four  inches  apart  in  the  track  and  carry  the  ma- 
chine forw^ard  four  inches  for  each  new  row.  Through 
a  strong  cross  piece  connecting  the  tw^o  runners  are 
fifteen  holes  through  which  pass  tubes,  serving  as  drill 
holes  extending  a  few  inches  into  the  soil,  the  depth 
being  regulated  by  the  thickness  of  the  runners.  These 
tubes  extend  upward  nearly  two  feet.  Above  them  is 
a  cross  frame  bearing  fifteen  pint  cups.  A  man  sits  on 
a  comfortable  seat  and  drops  one  seed,  in  some  cases 
two  or  three,  into  each  cup,  then  tips  the  cross  frame 
and  drops  seeds  into  all  the  fifteen  hills  at  the  saire  in- 
stant. 

The  operator  of  the  levers  throws  the  machine  for- 
ward four  mches,  and  the  rows  are  thus  rapidly  and 
accurately  planted.  The  operator  and  the  dropper  thus 
are  able  to  pjant  the  seeds  at  uniform  distances  apart 
each  way. 

To  make  the  depth  uniform  a  board  straight-edge 
is  used  to  dress  down  the  soil  between  the  two  tracks, 
leaving  it  two  inches  below  the  top  of  the  track  at 
all  points.  Wheat  is  usually  planted  two  inches  deep 
and  as  it  falls  through  these  tubes  it  always  lies  on 
moist  soil  at  the  bottom  of  the  furrow.  It  is  observed 
that  seeds  planted  wdth  this  machine  germinate  much 
nearer  at  the  same  time  than  do  those  put  in  carefully 
with  the  hand  dibble.  The  soil  needs  some  attention 
after  planting.  Heavy  rains  often  require  going 
through  the  narrow  rows  with  small  two-inch  tined 
hoes  to  break  up  the  crust.    Usually  one  cultivation  is 


Methods  of  Breeding  Nursery  Wheat.  55 

necessary  and  care  must  be  used  in  pulling  out  of  the 
hills  every  weed^  as  a  weed  will  make  the  conditions 
poor  for  the  plant  beside  which  it  grows,  thus  destroy- 
ing the  primary  basis  of  the  comparison  of  the  indivi- 
dual plants. 

When  nearly  ripe  the  border  plants  are  all  re- 
moved by  means  of  a  grass  sickle  or  sheep  shears  from 
around  and  between  the  plots,  the  grain  being  tied  in 
bundles  and  shocked  up  at  one  side  of  the  field.  Notes 
are  now  taken  according  to  the  purpose  of  each  experi- 
ment. In  some  cases  it  is  desired  simply  to  secure  a 
large  number  of  superior  plants.  In  other  cases  a 
smaller  number  of  the  very  best  plants  are  wanted  for 
mothers  of  centgener  plots.  In  the  comparison  of  the 
progeny  of  mother  plants  the  best  heads  are  wanted 
for  the  best  plants  and  the  number  of  plants  harvested 
and  their  yield  of  grain  are  desired.  In  yet  other  cases 
theoretical  studies  of  breeding  require  that  statistics  be 
gathered  of  numerous  measureable  qualities  of  each 
individual  plant.  The  plants  may  be  pulled  up  by  the 
roots  or  may  be  harvested,  or  may  be  cut  of¥  with  sheep 
shears  or  grass  hook,  as  the  purposes  of  the  experiment 
require. 

This  article  is  already  too  prolix  with  details  and 
the  system  of  numbering,  the  detailed  herd-book  method 
in  use,  w^ould  seem  a  little  cumbersome  to  insert  here. 
Each  variety  secured  by  the  station  is  given  a  number 
with  the  name  of  the  state  prefixed,  as  Minnesota  No. 
169  wheat  and  Minnesota  No.  13  corn.  Each  plot  in 
the  nursery  is  alloted  one  or  more  hundreds  in  a  system 
of  numbering  which  allows  a  number  for  each  individ- 
ual plant.  Each  new  plot  begins  to  number  with  the  even 
hundred  and  one,  thus  101,  iioi  and  1201,  even  though 
the  previous  plot  did  not  fill  out  the  fu^l  bnn^ired  last 
previous  numbers.  By  discarding  the  two  figures  at 
the  right  the  remaining  figures  at  the  left  have  come  to 
be  used  as  the  centgeners  i,  it,  T2,  while  the  entire 
number  stands  for  the  first  plant  of  the  respective 
centgener   plots.      It   should   be   observed   th^t   should 


56  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals. 

a  plot  have  any  number  as  loo,  1043,  i^SS*  83,  or  any 
other  number,  the  centgener  number  of  the  plot  fol- 
lowing is  secured  by  adding  the  number  in  the  plot 
and  counting  the  last  hundred  as  if  it  were  an  even 
hundred. 

Thus  a  plant  in  plat  83  might  have  the  number 
8374;  or  a  plant  in  plat  1235  might  have  the  number 
123532,  etc.  A  stake  at  the  beginning  of  each  plot 
bears  the  centgener  number  which  is  the  pedigree  num- 
ber of  that  stock.  In  the  nursery  year  book  this  year's 
centgener  number  in  one  column  aod  last  year's  in  m 
adjoining  column  connect  each  stock  historically  with 
its  ancestor  as  completely  as  the  Short-horn  Herd  Book 
shows  the  historical  part  of  parentage  of  the  "red, 
(vhite  and  roans." 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  BREEDING  WHEAT. 

A  second  method  of  breeding  wheat,  more  effective 
than  the  method  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  the  farmer 
given  on  previous  pages,  may  be  outHned  as  follov/s: 
Plant  of  a  standard  variety  of  wheat  5000  seeds  in  hills 
as  mentioned  in  previous  paragraphs.  When  ripe  re- 
move all  but  500  of  the  plants  which  appear  to  be  the 
best  yielders.  Harvest  the  spikes  of  each  of  these  sep- 
arately and  place  them  in  a  packet.  Weigh  the  spikes 
from  each  plant  and  discard  all  but  200  of  the  best 
plants.  Shell  these,  weigh  and  grade  the  seeds  and  dis- 
card all  but  the  best  50  plants.  Mix  the  seeds  of  these 
50  plants  together  rapidly — multiply  into  a  variety  and 
distribute  the  fifth  to  the  seventh  year.  Wheat  thus 
bred  will  have  a  more  interesting  pedigree  than  that 
bred  by  the  first  method.  It  will  serve  to  offer  for  sale 
as  a  variety  a  stock  of  seeds  of  the  original  variety  more 
improved  than  that  first  sold  and  should  prove  profit- 
able to  purchasers.  Since  it  is  based  on  the  blood  lines 
of  50  mother  plants,  chosen  for  high  yield  and  superior 
quality  of  berry,  its  milling  and  bread-making  proper- 
ties will  differ  little  from  that  of  the  standard  parent 
variety  used  as  foundation  stock.  The  farmers  and 
millers  will  accept  improved  forms  thus  originated  with 
little  fear  of  lack  of  quality  in  the  flour  or  bread.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  in  Canada  millers  have  found  fault 
with  Prof.  Zavits  for  having  brought  about  the  general 
use  of  one  or  two  varieties  of  wheat  which  have  lacked 
so  much  in  quality  that  the  output  of  the  mills  was  un- 
favorably affected.  To  compete  with  the  best  flour 
the  mills  must  have  wheat  with  gluten  of  good  color 
and  especially  tough  and  strong  in  the  dough.  Prof. 
Zavits  evidently  paid  too  strict  attention  to  yield  and 


^8  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals, 

appearance  of  berry  and  had  no  adequate  facilities  for 
making  milling  and  baking  tests.  Prof.  Zavits  did  not 
carry  his  breeding  farther  than  finding  throughout  the 
world  those  varieties  which  would  yield  the  best,  and 
breeding  them  by  a  plan  similar  to  the  first  plan  men- 
tioned in  previous  pages.  It  is  not  probable  that  this 
inethod  of  selecting  within  the  variety  materially  chang- 
ed the  quality  of  the  grain,  although  he  made  a  material 
though  modest  increase  in  yield.  The  lack  of  milling 
quality,  no  doubt,  was  in  the  varieties  as  originally  in- 
troduced from  outside  the  Province  rather  than  pro- 
duced by  his  methods  of  selection. 

In  England  in  like  manner  the  scientists  are  seeking 
to  correct  a  similar  fault  in  the  winter  wheats.     They 
write  that  the  wheat  breeders  have  injured  the  quality 
of  the  wheat,  and  they  are  seeking  the  blood  of  Amer- 
ican winter  varieties  which  are  of  especially  strong  mil- 
ling quality    to    hybridize    with    their   large  yielding 
wheats.     Wheat  breeders  in  breeding  for  yield  alone 
liave  made  a  similar  mistake  to  that  made  by  breeders 
of  Short-horn  cattle,  who  bred  for  beef  and  neglected 
the  dairy  qualities.    It  is  far  easier  to  breed  for  a  single 
quality  than  for  two  or  more,  but  it  is  a  anarrower  busi- 
ness proposition.     The  wheat  breeder  wants  the  great- 
est value  per  acre ;  and  to  get  that  he  must  combine 
good  yield  with  good  quality.    The  Short-horn  breeder 
also  wants  the  greatest  profits  per  animal  or  per  herd, 
and  to  secure  that  good  beefing  quality  and  good  milk- 
giving  powers  combined  are  best.     In  neither  case  can 
we  have  the  greatest  excellence  in  either  one  quality, 
but  we  can  have  the  greatest  general  value  for  the  gen- 
eral farmer  in  the  variety  or  family  in  which  the  two 
qualities  are  combined.     Since  the  quality  of  flour  is 
greatly  jeopardized  by  some  of  the  methods  of  breed- 
ing wheat  \vhich  are  mentioned  below  these  questions 
are  as  vital  to  the  wheat  breeder  as  is  the  dual-purpose 
problem  to  the  breeder  of  cattle.     Both  problems  will 
lend  themselves  to  scientific  methods  where  statistical 
facts  take  the  place  of  vaporizing  theory.     But  this 


Various  Methods  of  Breeding  Wheat,  59 

will  be  referred  to  further  under  the  heading  of  cattle 
breeding  in  future  articles. 

A  third  method  of  breeding  wheat  carries  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  individual  plant  still  further.  Here  an 
actual  and  successful  experiment  will  serve  to  illustrate 
Ix^th  the  method  and  its  results.  Ten  years  ago  last 
spring  the  writer  planted  several  thousand  wheat  plants, 
one  plant  in  a  hill.  In  those  days  the  hills  were  placed 
12  inches  apart  instead  of  4  inches,  as  now.  The  seeds 
of  those  plants  which  appeared  to  yield  heaviest  were 
harvested  in  separate  packets.  These  were  carefully 
weighed  and  graded  and  31  of  the  heaviest  with  supe- 
rior quality  of  berry  were  chosen  as  mother  plants.  The 
next  spring  300  seeds  were  planted  from  each  mother 
plant,  again  12  inches  apart  each  way.  The  third  spring 
a  quart  or  so  of  wheat  from  each  of  the  31  sticks  was 
planted  and  one-half  bushel  of  each  was  secured.  The 
fourth  year  larger  plats  were  grown  in  comparison 
with  the  several  parent  wheats  which  had  been  used  as 
foundation  stocks.  This  was  repeated  the  fifth  and 
sixth  years,  when  eight  of  the  31  new  varieties  showed 
average  yields  here  at  University  Farm  superior  to  the 
old  varieties.  Four  of  these  were  of  especial  promise 
and  two,  Minnesota  No.  163,  a  new  fife  variety,  and 
Minnesota  No.  169,  a  new  blue  stem  variety,  were  chos- 
en to  distribute.  In  the  meantime  these  varieties  had 
been  tested  under  agreement  not  to  distribute  by  the 
three  sub-stations  in  Minneota  and  by  the  North  Da- 
kota, South  Dakota  and  Iowa  Stations.  By  1899  Min- 
nesota No.  163  had  been  so  increased  in  quantity  that 
200  bushels  were  sold  to  Minnesota  farmers ;  in  1900, 
100  bushels  were  sold  and  in  1901  again  200  bu- 
shels were  sold,  in  all  cases  to  farmers  selected  by  the 
State  Expeiment  Station.  In  1899  carefully  gathered 
statistics  from  growers  showed  that  this  wheat  yielded 
over  two  bushels  more  than  its  parent  variety  and  about 
one  bushel  more  than  blue  stem  wdieat.  It  should  be 
said  that  fife  and  blue  stem  are  almost  exclusively 
grown   in   the   State,   the   latter  predominating  in   the 


6o  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals. 

Southern  part  and  gradually  supplanting  the  fife  in  the 
Northern  half  of  the  State. 

Estimates  shovv-  that  there  are  about  60,000  acres  of 
Minnesota  No.  16^  wheat  now  growing  (1902)  in 
Minnesota.  This  new  variety  producing  wheat  worth 
a  dollar  per  acre  more  than  the  varieties  it  is  supplant- 
ing will  add  enough  wealth  to  repay  all  the  money  the 
station  has  ever  spent  in  introducing  and  improving 
crops.  If  this  wheat  could  be  increased  five  fold  for 
three  or  four  years  more  it  would  cover  the  State  and 
the  increased  yield  would  be  worth  several  millions  of 
dollars  annually.  That  result  is  not  to  be  hoped  for, 
but  it  promises  to  increase  rapidly  and  cover  a  large 
portion  of  the  wheat  acreage  of  the  State.  But  the 
station  has  other  and  still  better  varieties  coming  on 
and  it  is  our  ambition  to  increase  the  State's  yield  five 
instead  of  one  and  one-half  bushels  per  acre  by  breed- 
ing; and  also  a  similar  amount  by  so  improving  the 
farm  management  that  the  fields  planted  to  wheat  will 
be  better  prepared  for  that  crop.  This  seems  practi- 
cable both  by  choosing  the  kind  of  crop  preceding  the 
wheat  and  by  better  methods  of  tillage  and  manur 
ing.  Minnesota's  average  wheat  yield  is  13/^  bushels 
per  acre,  while  England's  is  about  30.  It  is  the  aim  to 
bring  Minnesota's  yield  up  10  bushels,  or  to  23^  bu- 
shels per  acre.  Too  high  ?  Should  it  not  more  nearly 
approach  that  of  England  even  if  she  has  longer  sea- 
sons, cooler,  cloudier  summers,  and  mild  winters,  per- 
mitting the  use  of  winter  wheats?* 

It  would  be  manifestly  unsafe  to  distribute  varieties 
originated  under  this  third  plan  from  single  mother 
f^lants  without  first  testing  their  ability  to  yield  larger 
crops  of  grain  of  superior  quality.  The  new  varieties 
are  run  annually  in  plots  of  one-tenth  or  one-twentieth 
of  an  acre  for  three  years.  Since  wheat  is  close  fertil- 
ized these  can  be  planted  only  two  feet  apart  as  shown 
in  the  picture  of  a  man  harvesting  plats  of  wheat. 

The  bundles  from  each  plat  are  carefully  shocked 
separately  and  as  soon  as  they  are  sufficiently  dry  they 


ft 


^ 

f? 


bo 


Various  Methods  of  Breeding  Wheat,  6i 

are  drawn  to  the  barn  and  threshed.  The  station  had 
a  machine  especially  constructed  for  threshing  small 
plats.  It  is  simply  a  small-sized  threshing  machine 
so  reconstructed  inside  that  no  ledges  or  other  places 
will  allow  grain  to  lodge.  Each  variety  thus  runs  out 
clean  before  the  next  variety  is  started  through  the 
machine.  So  as  to  doubly  insure  that  the  varieties  do 
not  become  mixed,  most  of  the  grain  from  each  plat 
is  placed  in  a  large  bag  and  a  half  bushel  of  that  which 
runs  through  near  the  last,  while  the  machine  is  yet 
''running  full/'  is  saved  out  in  a  small  bag  to  use  in 
planting  the  test  plat  the  next  year. 

During  one  of  the  early  years  of  these  field  trials 
milling  and  baking  tests  are  made.  Very  satisfactory 
tests  are  made  of  the  amount  and  the  quality  of  the 
gluten  with  only  a  quart  of  wheat  run  through  a  test 
roller  mill.  And  wheats  which  are  thus  shown  to  be 
poor  in  quality,  unless  their  yield  be  so  high  as  to  more 
than  compensate,  are  discarded  at  the  end  of  the  three 
annual  field  trials.  The  remaining  wheats  which  have 
shown  superiority  are  now  distributed  to  other  stations 
for  trial  under  agreement  that  the  originator  shall  have 
the  say  as  to  when  they  shall  be  distributed.  This 
precaution  protects  the  station  and  enables  it  to  later 
secure  the  co-operation  of  farmers  who  will  aid  in  dis- 
tributing new  things  if  they  have  an  even  chance  with 
others,  to  sell  at  the  same  time  as  other  introducers, 
that  they  may  make  profits  from  extra  care,  advertis- 
ing, etc.  This  plan  of  securing  farmers  to  co-operate 
with  the  Minnesdta  station  promises  to  result  in  the 
two  new  wheats  already  distributed  rapidly  displacing 
the  two  parent  varieties.  In  case  of  Minnesota  No.  169, 
the  second  new  wheat  distributed,  nearly  1600  bushels 
were  sold  last  spring  (1902)  to  nearly  400  farmers, 
four  bushels  to  each  at  $1.50  per  bushel.  These  co- 
operators  were  chosen  by  the  station  because  of  their 
beiing  recommended  by  other  farmers,  or  by  local  grain 
dealers,  as  men  adapted  to  seed  grain  growing,  and 


62  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals. 

through  personal  correspondence  were  induced  to  join 
the  station  in  introducing  this  new  variety.  These  men 
are  well  distributed  throughout  the  counties  of  the 
State. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PROJECTED  BREEDING  EFFICIENCY 

Previous  paragraphs  have  dealt  with  superior  wheat 
seeds,  spikes  which  excel,  and  individual  plants  which 
yield  more  value  in  grain  than  do  their  fellows.  Bui 
there  is  another  and  far  more  important  measure  of  the 
value  of  plants  to  be  chosen  as  parents  of  varieties. 
Some  plants  and  animals  are  large,  strong,  hardy  and 
very  prolific,  but  without  the  ability  to  transmit  their 
prolificacy  and  other  qualities  which  combine  to  make 
up  all-'round  values.  Because  the  individuality  of  the 
plant  or  animal  is  visible,  present  before  us,  we  are 
wont  to  give  undue  weight  to  the  value  in  pedigrees  of 
the  show  characteristics,  or  even  to  qualities  of  the 
largest  intrinsic  merit  shown  in  the  individual,  and  to 
undervalue  the  more  subtle,  yet  far  more  valuable  abil- 
ity to  project  a  high  value  into  future  generations. 
Breeding  power,  "projected  efficiency,^'  of  high  gen- 
eral value,  is  what  should  be  sought. 

A  man  with  twenty  trotting-bred  mares  and  with 
a  choice  between  a  2 :  lo  stallion  with  a  large  number 
of  2 :  30  colts  and  a  2 :  30  stallion  with  a  large  number 
of  2 :  10  colts  would  not  waste  a  breath  before  choosing 
for  the  sire  the  horse  which  had  sired  the  fast  trotters. 
In  wheat  breeding  we  found  after  a  few  years  that  the 
columns  in  our  tabular  score  card  telling^  the  yield  of 
mother  plants  were  no  longer  even  scanned.  When  we 
compared  the  average  yields  of  the  progeny  of  a  large 
number  of  mother  plants  we  instinctively  neglected  the 
yields  of  the  mother  plants.  We  learned  by  extended 
experience  that  the  progeny  with  the  best  individuality 
from  each  generation  is  not  always  the  best  breeded 
and  is  sometimes  a  relatively  poor  breeder.  We  learned 
that  the  true  measure  of  the  breeding  value  of  the 


64  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals. 

parent  plant  as  well  as  of  the  parent  animal  was  to  be 
found  by  measuring  a  large  number  of  its  progeny. 
Formerly  we  had  been  content  to  breed  from  the  best 
individuals;  now  we  have  learned  to  use  the  blood  of 
the  best  breeders  and  to  devise  methods  all  along  the 
line  to  measure  breeding  powers  in  the  terms  of  aver- 
ages of  large  fraternity  groups  of  progeny. 

Since  there  is  only  one  very  strong  breeder  in 
thousands  of  a  given  race  of  plants,  and  Francis  Gal- 
ton  showed  that  there  is  only  one  really  brainy  man  in 
5,000,  it  was  necessary  to  devise  experimental  and  sta- 
tistical methods  of  measuring  and  recording  the  breeding 
values  of  wheat  and  other  plants  in  the  terms  of  the  aver- 
age of  the  progeny  of  the  respective  parents.  We  want 
the  blood  of  that  one  wheat  plant  in  10,000  whose  blood 
will  add  a  bushel  of  wheat  per  acre  to  the  wheat  crop, 
or,  perchance,  that  one  wheat  plant  in  100,000  whose 
blood  lines  will  add  three  dollars  per  acre  to  the  value 
of  the  wheat  fields  of  the  State.  And  we  want  a  meth- 
od of  ferreting  out  those  blood  lines.  We  also  want 
the  blood  lines  which  will  make  a  general-purpose 
breed  of  cattle — seemingly  a  simpler  proposition  with 
a  scientific,  statistical  method  than  it  was  for  our  fath- 
ers to  have  made  a  trotting  breed  of  horses  from  a 
running  breed  by  using  a  very  crude  statistical  method 
of  breeding.  Statistical  methods  of  breeding  will  not 
make  mere  name  pedigrees  and  pedigrees  based  on 
mere  art  go  out  pf  use,  because  we  have  use  for  all 
these  methods.  Rut  statistical  pedigrees  need  incar-- 
nation.  We  have  truly  been  playing  at  pedigree-making 
in  some  lines  where  science  and  facts  should  have,  pre- 
vailed more  and  mere  artistic  judging  less,  and^  far 
greater  progress  should  have  been  attained.  Without 
breeding,  many  of  our  best  varieties  of  wheat,  oats  and 
the  like  have  gone  backward  and  under  breeding  it 
may  be  that  some  of  the  families  of  certain  breeds  of 
hogs  and  cattle,  if  not  of  other  species,  have  become  of 
less  average  value  than  formerly. 


CHAPTER  X. 

NURSERY   CENTGENER   BREEDING  OF    WHEAT. 

The  following  method  is  now  in  use  at  the  Minne- 
sota Experiment  Station  for  testing  blood  lines  of 
superior  mother  plants  of  wheat  and  multiplying  them 
into  new  varieties. 

From  a  large  plot  or  a  field  of  wheat  select  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  heads  so  as  to  have  several  thousand 
large  fine  berries.  The  second  year  plant  in  nursery 
plots  4x4  or  5x5  inches  apart  each  way,  one  seed  in  a 
place,  10,000  hills.  When  nearly  ripe  with  the  aid  of 
sheep  shears  or  a  grass  hook  remove  all  but  500  plants. 
Cut  the  heads  or  spikes  off  each  of  these  plants,  not  in- 
cluding more  than  an  inch  of  the  straw  below  the  spike^ 
and  put  in  a  packet.  Remove  each  bunch  of  the  spikes 
from  its  packet  and  weigh.  Discard  the  half  or  two- 
thirds  that  are  poorest  in  weight,  and  shell  the  re- 
mainder. Again  weigh  to  get  the  net  weight  of  grain 
and  inspect  for  quality.  Compare  the  net  weights  and 
grades  and  throw  away  all  but  one  hundred.  The 
third  year  plant  a  little  plat  ten  plants  square,  4x4 
inches,  from  each  of  the  one  hundred  mother  plants. 
At  harvest  time  pick  out  the  best  ten  heads  from  what 
appear  to  be  the  best  ten  plants  in  the  plot  for  stock 
seed  for  a  similar  plot  next  year.  As  there  will  be 
some  blanks  count  the  number  of  plants  harvested, 
then  thresh,  weigh  and  divide  the  weight  by  the  num- 
ber of  plants  harvested  to  get  the  yield  per  plant.  Pass 
judgment  upon  the  grade,  putting  all  grades  into  per- 
centages so  that  they  may  be  averaged.  With  the  grain 
from  the  ten  selected  heads  plant  the  fourth  year  a 
similar  plot  and  repeat  the  fifth  year.  Add  together 
the  yields  per  plant  for  the  second,  third  and  fourth 
years  and    divide   by   three.       Similarly    average    the 


66  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals, 

grades  for  the  three  years.  From  the  one  hundred  new 
varieties  thus  compared  choose  the  five  to  ten  which 
give  the  best  yield  and  grade. 

The  sixth  year  one  of  two  methods  may  be  em- 
ployed. The  seed  from  the  five  or  more  plants  may  be 
mixed  together  and  a  new  variety  thus  made  of  the 
combined  blood  of  several  mother  plants;  or  a  variety 
may  be  made  from  each  of  the  live  or  more  mother 
plants.  In  either  case  the  new  varieties  thus  made 
should  be  multiplied  the  seventh  year  to  produce  a  suf- 
ficient quantity  of  seed  to  plant  a  test  plat  of  one- 
twentieth  or  one-tenth  of  an  acre  field.  We  are  in  the 
habit  of  running  these  field  test  plats  through  three 
years  of  successful  comparisons,  thus  testing  them  dur- 
ing the  eighth,  ninth  and  tenth  years.  As  hail,  chinch 
bugs  and  other  troubles  strike  experiment  plats  as  well 
as  practical  fields  of  wheat  it  sometimes  requires  four 
or  five  years  to  get  over  this  part  of  the  tests.  Among 
these  field  plots  of  new  wheats  are  always  interspersed 
plots  of  our  standard  wheats  with  which  to  compare 
the  new  kinds.  We  at  once  become  interested  in  any 
of  the  new  kinds  which  show  pronounced  ability  over 
the  standard  w^heats  in  yield.  We  make  milling  and 
baking  tests,  and,  if  necessary,  chemical  laboratory 
tests.  ^  Any  of  these  varieties  which  still  give  promise 
of  increased  yields  per  acre  are  then  distributed  to  the 
co-operating  stations  and  there  tested.  Any  variety 
which  here  distinguishes  itself  as  adapted  to  a  group 
of  States  or  to  a  district  within  a  State  is  rapidly  in- 
creased during  the  tenth,  eleventh  and  twelfth  years  to 
a  thousand  bushels  or  more  and  sold  to  co-operators. 
By  this  method  about  twelve  years  are  required  from 
the  time  the  start  is  made  until  the  variety  is  sent  out 
to  the  farmers.  This  seems  a  long  time  to  the  begin- 
ner, but  once  there  are  on  hand  more  varieties  of 
wheat  than  the  experiment  station  or  a  large  seed  firm 
can  distribute  the  matter  of  time  when  a  new  variety 
is  ready  for  distribution  does  not  become  of  so  greai 
moment.      Some  original  varieties  are  going  into  the 


Nursery  Centgener  Breeding  of  Wheat.  67 

nursery  and  resulting  new  varieties  are  coming  out 
each  year. 

This  method  may  seem  complex  and  like  going  too 
much  into  minutia  for  anything  practical,  but  when  it 
is  realized  that  a  single  kernel  of  wheat  has  in  a  number 
of  instances  been  multiplied  into  a  permanent  commer- 
cial variety  the  relative  breeding  power  of  one  mother 
plant  as  compared  with  another  becomes  a  matter  of 
great  significance..  Some  mother  plants  are  so  weak  in 
their  ability  to  project  their  good  qualities  into  their 
progeny  that  in  a  few  generations  the  stocks  run  out. 
Other  mother  plants  are  average  in  their  ability  to  pro- 
duce yields  in  new  varieties ;  still  others  have  superior 
ability.  One  wheat  plant  in  Minnesota  has  been  so 
multiplied  that  its  progeny  is  now  covering  about  60,- 
000  acres  of  land.  If  that  stock  of  wheat  were  in- 
creased ten-fold  for  a  few  years  it  would  be  of  sufficient 
quantity  to  sow  all  the  wheat  in  two  or  three  States. 
If  the  progeny  of  one  kernel  of  wheat  can  be  so  rapidly 
and  widely  multiplied  there  is  wrapped  up  in  the  pos- 
sibilities of  that  one  kernel  large  values.  It  would  seem 
that  it  is  quite  worth  while  for  States  and  communities 
to  expend  reasonable  sums  of  txioney  in  testing  the 
breeding  powers  of  individual  plants  and  having  fotind 
superior  ones  use  renewed  effort  to  bring  about  their 
general  cultivation. 

The  pedigrees  of  these  mother  plants  are  kept  with 
quite  as  much  care  as  are  the  pedigrees- of  pure  bred 
cattle  or  horses.  A  system  of  numbering  has  been  de- 
vised so  that  each  little  plot  has  a  number  and,  if  de- 
sired, each  little  plant  within  the  little  plot  is  given  a 
number.  In  the  nursery  year  book  the  plot  number  of 
this  year  is  beside  the  plot  number  of  last  y:ear,  thus 
enabling  the  foreman  to  trace  the  blood  lines  back 
through  a  series  of  years.  The  progeny  of  each  mother 
plant  is  also  given  a  nursery  stock  number  which  serves 
as  a  name  so  long  as  that  stock  is  in  the  nursery.  This 
is  sometimes  necessary  as  a  nursery  stock  often  re- 
mains in  the  niirserv  for  a  series  of  years  and  more  than 


68  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals, 

one  field  variety  might  be  taken  from  the  same  stock 
number.  In  other  cases  several  stock  numbers  are  col- 
lected into  a  common  variety.  This  is  allowable  where 
all  of  the  stocks  are  the  same  in  appearance  and  in 
quality.  When  the  varieties  are  taken  from  the  nur- 
sery to  the  field  they  are  given  what  we  call  State  or 
Station  numbers,  e.  g.,  Minnesota  No.  163  wheat  or 
North  Dakota  No.  105  corn.  To  these  numbers  soon 
become  attached  their  yields  in  the  field  plot  tests, 
their  record  in  the  mill  and  breeding  laboratory,  also 
their  yields  at  outlying  stations  and,  finally,  varieties 
which  are  distributed  to  the  farmers  are  compared  on 
a  large  number  of  farms  with  the  varieties  in  common 
use  and  average  farm  yields  are  secured.  Average 
yields  as  compared  with  standard  and  other  varieti^ 
all  along  the  line  thus  become  the  statistical  part  of 
the  pedigree  of  these  new  varieties.  When  it  comes  to 
selling  a  new  variety  statistical  facts  if  materially  fav- 
oring the  new  variety  are  a  great  help  in  inducing 
farmers  to  purchase  it.  Seed  dealers  have  already  be- 
gun to  use  our  statistical  wheat  pedigrees.  It  is  of 
interest  in  this  connection  to  note  that  custom  has 
regulated  the  price  of  seed  wheat  at  only  a  few  cents 
above  the  price  of  similar  wheat  which  would  grade  the 
same  for  market  purposes.  This  makes  it  impractica- 
ble for  seed  dealers  to  try  to  make  profits  from  selling- 
good  looking  seed  wheat,  that  is  wheat  merely  of  good 
grade  of  the  ordinary  varieties.  There  is  not  sufficient 
margin  to  pay  for  advertising  and  other  necessary  ex- 
penses. Wheats  with  statistical  pedigrees  will  over- 
come this  trade  difficulty  and  will  enable  seedsmen  ta 
introduce  new  kinds  into  communities  which  have  long 
held  to  old  and  in  many  cases  very  unprofitable  varie- 
ties. 

A  system  of  keeping  records  and  pedigrees  of 
wheat,  corn,  sugar  beets,  clover,  pumpkins  and  other 
field  crops  has  been  devised  which  is  proving  very  sat- 
isfactory. This  system  has  been  followed  during  th(? 
last  dozen  years  and  has  been  used  for  the  past  tvirp* 


Nursery  Centgener  Breeding  of  Wheat.  69 

years  with  very  little  modification,  having  proved  adapt- 
ed to*  nearly  all  new  conditions  which  are  constantly 
coming  up  in  the  work  of  making  varieties  and  in  the 
theoretical  work  of  studying  problems  of  heredity  and 
breeding  in  plants.  Some  of  the  methods  used  in  these 
records  are  proving  satisfactory  in  keeping  the  records 
of  animal  breeding  also. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

CROSS  BREEDING  AND  HYBRIDIZING  OF  WHEAT. 

In  Chapter  IX  a  statement  was  made  of  the  methods 
used  in  measuring  the  breeding  power  or  "projected 
efficiency''  of  single  mother  plants  of  wheat.  It  can 
readily  be  seen  that  the  value  of  varieties  of  wheat, 
which  it  is  possible  to  make  from  any  original  variety 
adopted  as  a  foundation  stock,  is  determined  by  the  pe- 
culiar breeding  power  or  value  of  the  best  plants  with- 
in that  foundation  stock.  As  a  stream  cannot  rise  above 
Its  source;  so  varieties  better  than  the  blood  of  the  best 
plants  in  the  original  variety  cannot  be  made.  The 
plan  outlined  has  proved  well -adapted  for  cheaply  elim- 
inating all  but  the  best  and  thus  securing  the  blood  of 
the  best  plants.  Methods  have  been  found  also  of 
making  extended  field,  laboratory- and  baking  tests  of 
these  new  varieties  originated  by  selection.  Business 
methods  have  also  been  devised  for  effectively  placing 
quantities  of  these  new  varieties  on  the  market  under 
statistical  pedigrees,  which  show  their  intrinsic  values 
in  a  way  that  will  induce  farmers  to  use  them,  and  seed 
growers  to  grow  them  in  large  quantities  for  sale,  thus 
rapidly  bringing  about  their  wide  and  general  use,  sup- 
planting kinds  of  less  value. 

The  question  now  arises,  are  there  not  means  of 
securing  mother  plants  of  still  higher  breeding  value 
than  those  originally  existing  within  a  given  variety 
of  wheat'*  Cross-breeding  and  hybridizing  have 
proved  of  greatest  value  in  this  connection.  It  seems  a 
matter  of  convenience  hereafter  to  use  the  term 
^'hybridizing"  in  a  more  liberal  sense  than  is  the  general 
custom,  that  one  term  may  be  used  to  cover  the  cross- 
ing of  varieties  as  well  as  of  species.  In  a  future 
article,  before  taking  up  the  subject  of  the  breeding 


V\g.  6.    Parents  and  progeny  of  wheat  hybrid. 


i 

I 

to 


bo 


^H'^^l 

HPI 

H\» 

^r '« 

■n 

mm 

■'''■ 

Br.^H 

-l/^'A 


Wig.  9.     Wheat   spikes,  flowers  and  seed. 


Cross-Breeding  and  Hybridizing  of  Wheat.         71 

of  cattle  and  other'  species  of  animals,  a  discussion 
will  be  presented  giving  expression  to  some  of  the  facts 
of  variation  by  means  of  graphic  illustrations,  curved 
lines  and  other  diagrams.  For  the  present  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  discuss  the  fact  that  greater  variation  is 
produced,  and  the  methods  of  ferreting  out  plants 
which  have  the  highest  breeding  power.  The  fact 
should  be  at  all  times  kept  in  mind  that  increasing, 
variation  of  hybridization  does  not  always  increase  the 
average  value  of  all  the  progeny.  The  practical  busi- 
ness fact  is  that  it  does  increase  the  value  of  those  few 
which  vary  in  the  desired  direction.  By  proper  statis- 
tical methods  of  breeding  we  simply  throw  out  all  but 
the  few  best  and  base  the  new  variety  on  these  few. 
We  deal  not  with  the  average  of  a  given  hybrid,  but 
with  the  blood  of  the  few  best  breeding  individuals  in 
the  hybrid.  That  hybridization  causes  variation  is 
shown  by  the  photograph  in  Fig.  6.  At  the  right  in 
the  upper  row  of  heads  is  the  blue  stem  plant  used  for 
the  male  parent,  and  at  the  left  the  fife  wheat  plant 
used  as  the  female  parent.  The  middle  and  lower  rows 
represent  types  chosen  from  among  the  progeny,  show- 
ing that  great  variation  was  produced  Here  are 
plants  which  resemble  the  female  parent,  others  re- 
sembling the  male  parent,  and  other  plants  which 
resemble  numerous  other  known  varieties  of  wheat, 
still  others  of  entirely  new  types,  compounded  out  of 
the  blood  of  the  two  parents. 

Henry  Vilmorin,  the  great  plant  breeder  and  seeds- 
man of  Paris,  showed  the  writer  varieties  of  wheat 
representing  all  of  the  sub-species  of  that  grain  which 
he  claimed  to  have  produced  by  crossing  two  common 
varieties  of  diflFerent  sub-species.  In  some  cases  of 
superior  mother  plants  among  hybrids  there  is  no  essen- 
tial-variation  in  the  botanical  type,  but  in  size  of  heads, 
yield  of  grain  per  plant,  quality  of  grain  and  other 
individual  characteristics,  there  may  still  be  a  difference 
of  a  practical  nature.  There  is  also  a  very  great 
difference  between  the  breeding  power  of  these  hybrid 


y2  Breeding  Flahts  and  Animals. 

plants.  By  hybridizing  two  varieties  of  wheat  we 
secure  in  occasional  plants  of  the  new  hybrid  many  of 
the  good  qualities  of  both  the  parents  and  in  some 
quite  new  qualities  are  created  and  new  value  ad- 
ded to  old  qualities.  By  testing  tens  and  even 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  progeny  of  a  given  cross 
we  are  able  to  find  an  occasional  plant  which  has  breed- 
ing power  superior  to  that  found  in  the  parent  varieties, 
'fhe  amount  of  labor  required  in  merely  hybridizing 
is  only  a  very  small  part  of  one  per  cent  of  the  Work 
of  making  new  hybrids  wheats.  It  consists  in  increas- 
ing the  hybrids  to  a  large  quantity  so  as  to  get  good 
vigorous  parents  to  put  in  nursery  trials,  testing  the 
mother  parents  in  the  nursery  so  as  to  eliminate  all  but 
those  which  actually  yield  best  and  produce  the  most 
value  per  acre.  The  milling,  baking  and  laboratory 
tests  are  even  more  important  in  case  of  hybrids  than 
in  case  of  wheats  produced  mainly  by  selection  from 
good  varieties,  because  in  hybrids  the  quality  is  often 
changed  from  the  quality  of  the  parent  varieties.  It 
is  both  wrong  and  dangerous  for  an  experiment  station 
to  distribute  a  new  variety  of  wheat  until  its  milling 
and  baking  value  have  been  definitely  determined,  and 
■especially  so  of  new  hybrid  varieties. 

Fig  8  shows  students  at  work  making  hybrid 
wheats.  The  necessary  manual  dexterity  can  soon  be 
acquired  under  instruction,  or  by  studying  the  matter 
from  pictures  shown  herein  one  could  soon  learn  to 
cross-pollinate  wheat. 

In  Fig  9  with  the  subjoined  notes  are  shown 
many  facts  about  the  wheat  flower.  Any  boy  or  girl 
who  is  interested  can  take  the  wheat  flower  apart  at  the 
time  it  is  ready  to  blossom  and  verify  the  truth  of  all 
the  diagrams  shown  in  this  figure. 

The  essential  parts  of  the  flower  are  the  covering  of 
chaff,  the  female  pottion  of  the  flower  shown  at  O  and 
S,  in  4  A^  and  4  B«;  also  at  I2^  13^  and  14^  in  Fig.  4. 

At  the  flowering  time  the  stigma  spreads  out  from 
its  appearance  at  12*  to  that  of  13**,  and  soon  after 


H-H3 
AM 


M-M7 
A.M 


Pig-.  10.     Opening  habit  of  the  wheat  flowers  and  anthers. 


Pig".  11.     Removing  the  florets. 


^SS^// 


Fier.  12.     E^ti:^cting  the  anthers. 


Cross-Breeding  and  Hybridizing  of  Wheat,         73 

iowering  the  stigma  is  shriveled  up  as  in  14®,  but  the 
ovary  is  enlarged  and  the  growth  of  the  grain  is  begun. 
At  the  time  of  flowering,  the  anthers,  aaa-4  A^-  also 
shown  in  cross  section  in  5^a  and  in  lo^  are  rapidly 
pushed  up  by  their  filaments,  as  shown  in  ff-4  B^.  The 
opening  of  the  flower  is  shown  in  Fig.  10.  In  this  case 
the  actual  movements  of  a  flower  were  observed  and 
recorded  from  opening  to  closing.  This  opening  can 
best  be  observed  in  our  spring  wheats  by  going  out 
early  in  the  morning  and  observing  the  flowers  that  are 
nearly  ready  to  open,  the  anthers  breaking  open  and  de- 
positing the  little  grains  of  pollen  on  the  stigmas.  These 
^'[^rains  of  pollen  are  shown  in  11,  Fig  9,  lining  the 
walls  of  the  anther  which  is  there  shown  in  cross  sec- 
tions in  10,  Fig.  4,  as  spherical  bodies.  In  nearly  all 
eases  the  pollen  falls  on  the  stigma  of  the  wheat  flower 
while  the  anthers  are  being  pushed  upward  by  the  fila- 
ments and  before  the  flower  is  fully  open.  In  some  cases 
the  filaments  succeed  in  pushing  the  anthers  out  so  diat 
they  fall  over  and  are  not  caught  by  the  two  portions  of 
closing  chaflf,  called  flowering  glume  and  palea.  The 
breaking  open  of  the  anther  sacks  and  the  scattering  of 
the  pollen  grains  is  illustrated  in  Fig.  10  at  11  to  16,  in- 
clusive. In  some  way  not  readily  understood  wheat  flor- 
ets nearly  always  self- fertilize  themselves.  Vilmorin  and 
Rimpau  have  estimated  that  not  more  than  one  floret  in 
10,000  is  cross-pollinated,  and  this  is  nearly  a  correct 
statement.  It  may  be  that  owing  to  its  being  accus- 
tomed to  self-pollination  the  floret's  own  pollen  grows 
into  the  stigma  more  rapidly  and  more  quickly  unites 
with  the  ovule  than  pollen  from  another  plant  of  the 
same  variety,  or  than  pollen  from  another  variety. 

The  plan  commonly  followed  in  handling  wheat 
spikes  is  to  remove  the  smaller  spikelets  at  the  tip  and 
also  at  the  base  of  the  spike.  Then  remove  the  smaller 
florets  at  the  center  and  base  of  the  spike,  as  shown  in 
Fig.  II.  The  remaining  are  all  emasculated  by  open- 
ing with  small,  sharp  tweezers,  as  shown  in  Fig.  12, 
and  pulling  out  the  three  anthers.   .This  is  done  when  the 


74  Breeding  Pimiis  2ind  Animais, 

floret  is  young  and  tke  anthers  still  greenish  in  color^ 
though  nearly  ready  to  turn  yellow,  and  as  they  ripen 
to  break  open  and  shed  their  pollen  on  the  stigma. 
After  emasculating  the  head  of  wheat  it  is  covered  with 
tissue  paper,  gently  tied  on,  to  prevent  the  introduction 
of  foreign  pollen.  In  24  to  48  hours,  when  the  stigma 
has  become  receptive,  as  shown  by  the  opening  of  neigh- 
boring florets  of  the  same  age,  the  covering  is  removed 
and  pollen  from  anthers  taken  from  strong  plants  in 
the  variety  used  as  the  male  parent  is  dusted  on.  The 
crossed  head  of  wheat  is  now  covered  and  allowed  to 
ripen.  A  careful  operator  can  secure  50  per  cent  or 
more  of  seeds  in  the  flowers  handled.  The  rough 
treatment  necessary  injures  many  of  the  flowers  so 
that  no  seeds  set. 

The  seeds  from  a  given  hybridized  spike  may  be 
planted  the  second  year  in  hills,  one  seed  in  a  hill,  a  foot 
apart  each  way.  The  seed  from  each  of  these  spikes 
may  be  sown  in  drills  or  broadcast  for  two  or  three 
years  imtil  they  have  passed  through  their  greatest 
variation.  Strong  heads  may  now  be  selected  and  the 
wheats  from  which  to  select  good  berries  and  the  new 
hybrids  may  be  entered  in  the  field  crop  nursery  in  hills 
4x4  inches,  in  plots  of  from  2,000  to  100,000  plants 
from  each  hybrid.  The  treatment  of  selection  in  the 
nursery,  of  taking  the  best  to  the  field  tests  and  there 
comparing  them  with  the  best  standard  wheats,  may 
be  carried  out  in  a  manner  similar  to  that  described 
in  previous  articles  in  regard  to  breeding  wheat  by 
selection  alone.  The  hybridizing  is  done  simply  to  in- 
crease the  variation  of  an  occasional  plant  toward  a 
more  valuable  type.  The  word  "type''  as  used  here 
must  not  mean  mere  botanical  appearance,  neither  must 
it  mean  yield  alone.  The  word  "type"  in  its  broadest 
sense  in  breeding  economic  plants  and  animals  means 
that  combination  of  qualities  which  give  the  largest 
value,  yield,  disease  resistance,  hardiness,  quality 
and  economy  of  production,  together  with  other  intrin- 


Cross-Breeding  and  Hybridizing  of  Wheat,         75 

sic  and  artistic  qualities  which  must  all  be  combined, 
correlated,  to  make  up  general  values. 

Having  thus  given  a  method  of  breeding  wheat 
somew^hat  in  detail,  very  brief  statements  in  future 
articles  will  suffice  to  give  methods  in  use  in  the 
Minnesota  Experiment  Station  in  breeding  other  field 
crops.  Interesting  and  apparently  substantial  progress 
is  being  made  with  the  other  cereals,  including  corn  and 
iiax,  and  with  a  number  of  grasses,  clovers  and  other 
forage  and  root  crops.  The  general  features  common 
to  plant  and  animal  breeding,  and  some  of  the  lessons 
eav  li  can  teach  the  other  will  become  more  apparent 
as  the  discussion  of  breeding  horses,  cattle,  sheep, 
swine,  poultry  and  pet  stock  proceeds.  The  value  of 
selecting  the  best  breeders  from  among  immense  num- 
bers, the  importance  of  statistical  pedigrees  as  aids  in 
improvement  along  economic  lines,  the  necessity  of 
correlating  many  qualities  into  varieties  and  bree<ls 
for  general  values,  the  danger  while  breeding  for  other 
important  points,  of  neglecting,  to  breed  for  disease 
resistance  and  strong  fecundity,  and  the  commercial 
value  of  tabulated  statistics  of  intrinsic  breeding  values 
as  an  aid  in  securing  long  prices  for  breeding  animals, 
are  among  the  general  subjects  to  be  especially  con- 
sidered. 

Some  general  suggestions  will  be  made  as  to  co- 
operative organizations  in  counties  or  groups  of  coun- 
ties to  press  forward  animal  breeding  which  will  be 
suftjcientl>   novel,  it -is  hoped,  to  stimulate  discussion. 


;  CHAPTER  XIL 

BREEDING  ANIMALS 

An  editorial  in  the  Breeders'  Gazette  of  September 
i8,  1902,  under  the  caption,  "Thou  Shalt  Not/'  con- 
tained two  sentences  which  ring  with  history-making 
importance.  The  Gazette  urges  a  general  effort  ta 
lift  Short-horn  breeding  in  the  United  States  to  a  higher 
plane  than  the  mere  dealing  in  herd-book  certificates. 
"Until  we  have  a  healthy  public  sentiment  bearing  upon 
Short-horn  breeding;  until  we  offer  some  reward  for 
original  work,  we  will  continue  to  be  consumers 
and  not  producers  of  Short-horn  types." 

This  stand  by  the  Gazette  will  serve  as  a  landmark 
between  the  dealing  in  mere  name  or  lineage  pedigrees 
and  adding  performance  records  to  our  pedigrees;  be- 
tween breeding  by  mere  outward  appearances  and 
breeding  by  statistical  methods  of  performance,  to- 
gether with  individual  appearance ;  and  between  supine- 
ly following  the  lead  of  the  old  world  and  strenuously 
creating  our  own  American  families  and  breeds. 

The  editorial  mentioned  referred  especially  to  Short- 
horns, but  its  broad  philosophy  applies  with  equal  force 
to  numerous  other  breeds  of  cattle,  sheep,  swine  and 
horses,  especially  to  those  breeds  designed  for  the 
production  of  meat.  The  fact  that  statistical  methods 
have  already  been  potent  agencies  in  breeding  faster 
race  horses  and  better  dairy  cattle  and  in  breeding 
many  kinds  of  improved  plants,  is  beginning  to  force 
itself  upon  the  attention  of  the  animal  breeding  frater- 
nity. Even  in  chickens  the  statistical  method  is  being 
used  to  bring  out  the  inherited  potency  of  animals 
with  high  average  efficiency  for  producing  a  large  num- 
ber of  eggs  annually  per  hen :  and  how  else  than  with 
trap  nests  and  records  can  it  well  be  done?     At  the 


Breeding  Animals.  77 

Maine  Experiment  Station  Dr.  Woods  is  devdoping 
hens  with  200-egg  capacity,  and  from  the  same  breeds 
another  family  with  an  average  of  only  40  eggs  an- 
nually— in  part  to  demonstrate  the  fact  that  by  system- 
atic breeding  radical  changes  may  be  effected.  New 
methods  of  securing  records  of  values  can  be  devised 
in  animal  breeding  just  as  it  is  being  successfully  done 
in  plant  breeding.  New  business  methods  may  be  a 
necessity,  and  the  work  of  herd-book  secretaries  may 
need  to  be  reorganized.  As  the  old-time  itinerant 
cobbler  gave  way  to  the  modern  shoe  factory,  so  the 
pedigree  herd-book  of  mere  names  may  need  to  give 
place  to  a  modernized  plan  of  recording,  tabulating 
and  using  measures  of  individuality,  and  also  records 
of  transmitting  power  as  secured  by  averaging  the 
measured  individual  qualities  of  a  number  of  the 
progeny  of  each  valuable  parent.  As  manual  dexterity 
in  swinging  the  cradle  has  been  superceded  by  skill 
at  running  the  self-binding  reaper,  so  skill  in  mere 
judging  by  the  looks  of  animals  may  ere  long  in  larger 
part  be  supplanted  by  training  in  ferreting  out,  through 
systems  of  tests  of  parents  and  progeny,  those  blood 
lines  which  have  the  highest  general  value.  Shows 
could  as  well  give  prizes  to  teams  of  college  students 
or  to  individual  competitors  for  displaying  and  compar- 
ing the  values  of  dairy  bulls  or  trotting  sires  as  for 
judging  several  classes  of  competing  animals  and  writ- 
ing their  reasons  for  the  placing  of  the  animals. 

Considerable  time  is  required  to  reduce  the  breeding 
of  any  class  of  animals  to  a  systematic  or  scientific  basis. 
In  both  animal  and  plant  breeding  the  goal  is  large, 
and  the  cost  to  the  whole  people  can  be  only  a  fraction 
of  the  benefit  they  will  eventually  receive,  providing 
the  work  is  economically  and  eflPectively  carried  out 
and  the  possible  results  reached.  The  additions  of  5 
or  10  per  cent  to  the  net  values  of  our  domestic  animals 
over  present  methods  of  breeding  would  add  hundreds 
of  millions  to  the  national  income. 

These   articles   were    started   to   arouse   discussion 


yS  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

on  the  problem  of  how  can  we  greatly  develop 
Americans  system  of  breeding.  The  first  ten  articles, 
published  a  year  ago,  dealt  mainly  with  plant  breeding, 
in  part  because  there  more  rapid  developments  are  going 
on  than  in  the  science  and  practice  of  animal  breeding. 
There  was  more  room  for  development  because  until 
recently  plant  breeding  lagged  behind  animal  breeding 
in  the  genera^  development.  Plant  breeders  now,  how- 
ever, already  have  in  some  ways  a  deeper  philosophy 
than  animal  breeders,  though  until  recently  the  animal 
breeders  were  clearly  in  the  lead.  In  plant  1)reeding 
it  is  practicable  to  deal  with  immense  numbers,  to  carry 
out  cheaply  theoretical  experiments  on  heredity,  and 
in  case  of  some  species  to  develop  better  business  prin- 
ciples for  practical  breeding.  No  one  who  has  familiar- 
ized himself  with  the  breeding  of  both  plants  and 
animals  doubts  the  application  of  most  of  the  laws  of 
breeding  alike  to  the  plant  and  the  animal  kingdoms. 
There  is.,  in  fact,  more  difference  in  the  methods  best 
to  use  between  breeding  corn  and  breeding  wheat,  or 
between  breeding  alfalfa  and  breeding  plums  than  there 
is  in  a  general  way  between  breeding  plants  and  breed- 
ing animals.  Animal  breeders  need  to  have  a  medium 
for  the  exchange  of  ideas  with  plant  breeders,  and 
plant  breeders  need  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  broad 
philosophy  of  the  animal  breeders.  Animal  breeders 
need  to  learn  from  the  plant  breeders  the  significance 
of  measuring  the  parent  in  terms  of  the  average  pro- 
geny, centgener  power  or  transmitting  power ;  and  the 
plant  breeders  need  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  animal 
breeders,  that  they  may  properly  appreciate  the  indivi- 
duality of  each  plant. 

And  no  doubt  the  recent  awakening  in. the  study  of 
plant  breeding  will  be  followed  by  renewed  activities 
in  the  study  of  animal  improvement  by  more  systematic 
methods.  Scientific  technique  in  the  field,  in  the  barn 
and  in  the  laboratory  is  no  doubt  to  be  rapidly  developed 
far  beyond  our  present  knowledge,  and  no  doubt  the 
recent  awakening  in  the  study  of  plant  breeding  will  be 


Breeding  Animals,  '^g 

followed  by  renewed  activities  in  the  study  of  animal 
improvement  by  more  systematic  methods.  Artificial 
evolution  is  the  term  under  which  many  scientific  and 
practical  men  will  merge  their  comjnon  efforts  in 
accumulating  knowledge,  acquiring  wealth  and  clevelop- 
ing  a  better  heritage  of  improved  blood  lines  for  future 
generations.  A  mbst  fruitful  source  of  new  ideas  and 
new  principles  is  to  be  found  in  the  work  of  the  animal 
and  plant  scientists  of  our  public  institutions.  Some  of 
these,  having  turned  their  attention  to  studying  the  laws 
of  heredity  and  the  relation  these  laws  bear  to  scieiitific 
breeding,  are  getting  results  of  importance.  Mendel's 
Law,  for  example,  of  which  more  will  be  said  later, 
may  mark  a  turning  point  in  the  study  of  heredity 
and  breeding  by  scientific  or  statistical  methods.  A  new 
periodical  called  "Biometrica"  (measures  of  living 
things)  has  been  started  recently  in  London,  to  publish 
the  findings  of  the  group  of  scientists  who  are  working 
along  this  line. 

A  word  has  been  recently  employed  by  Prof.  Daven- 
port of  the  University  of  Illinois  to  designate  the  gen- 
eral subject  of  breeding  living  things — plants  as  well  as 
animals.  The  word  is  "thremmatology,"  and  techni- 
cally means,  as  I  remember  Dean  Davenport's  state- 
ment, the  nursing  of  young  things ;  or,  as  defined  by 
Webster,  "the  science  which  treats  of  breeding  in  its 
widest  sense;  artificial  evolution."  If  this  word  could 
be  generally  adopted  to  cover  in  a  broad  way  the 
science  and  art  of  plant  and  anmial  improvement  it 
might  be  advantageously  employed.  Though  a  long 
term,  it  would  prove  convenient  as  expressing  definitely 
and  in  a  broad  way  the  whole  idea  of  breeding*. 

A  Plant  and  Animal  Breeders'  Association  is  being 
fonned  and  will  hold  its  first  general  meeting  in  St. 
Louis,  December  29  and  30.  This  movement  was 
started  in  November,  1900,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
American  Association  of  Agricultural  Colleges  and 
Experiment  Stations.  The  International  Conference  of 
Plant  Breeders,  held  in  New  York  Citv  in  October, 


So  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

1902,  endorsed  the  plan  of  organization  to  include 
both  animal  and  plant  breeders.  This  society  will  pro- 
vide a  place  for  the  exchange  of  views  on  the  principles 
of  breeding.  It  will  be  such  a  general  organization 
that  the  practical  man  will  be  there  to  give  his  point  of 
view,  and  the  scientific  man  will  there  find  an  ap- 
preciative audience  ready  to  put  into  use  any  really 
practical  discoveries  he  may  work  out.  It  will  be  o£ 
especial  value  also  in  promoting  experimental  research 
in  breeding  and  in  inducing  deeper  study  and  more 
thorough  preparation  for  their  business  on  the  part  of 
breeders,  herd-book  managers  and  teachers  of  breeding. 
The  suggestions  in  the  next  few  articles  will  have 
running  through  them  a  general  plan,  i.  e.,  that  of  co- 
operation among  breeders,  breeders'  associations,  coun- 
ties, states  and  the  general  government  in  bringing 
about  a  more  rapid  evolution  of  our  animal  types.  The 
writer  has  long  had  these  plans  in  mind,  but  wished 
before  publicly  advocating  them  that  he  might  make 
or  see  practical  demonstrations  in  co-operation  in 
animal  breeding  as  well  as  in  plant  breeding.  The  re- 
sults from  organizing  co-operation  in  plant  breeding 
in  Minnnesota  and  surrounding  states  serve  as  a  partial 
basis  for  discussing  what  now  appears  the  somewhat 
more  difficult  but  no  less  important  co-operation  in 
animal  breeding. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

BREEDING    EXPERIMENTS    AT   THE    MINNESOTA    STATION 

Before  taking  up  the  problems  in  animal  breeding, 
a  simimary  of  the  more  prominent  lines  of  breeding  field 
crops  under  way  in  1903  at  the  Minnesota  Experiment 
Station  may  be  of  interest.  Most  of  this  work  is  de- 
voted to  variety  formation  and  variety  improvement, 
though  numerous  theoretical  experiments  are  also  con- 
ducted. In  each  case  mentioned  the  hills  contained  only 
a  single  plant,  that  each  individual  plant  might  be 
studied  and  compared  with  its  fellows  under  similar 
conditions,  and  that  the  values  of  parent  plants  might 
be  karned  in  the  terms  of  the  average  values  of  their 
progeny. 

Of  alfalfa,  18,000  plants  in  hills  two  feet  apart  each 
way  were  planted  in  1901,  1902  and  1903.  Most  of  these 
are  of  the  hardy  American  and  Turkestan  varieties 
which  have  been  found  best  adapted  to  the  Northwest 
and  which  are  being  bred  for  still  hardier  forms.  Some 
of  these  are  very  promising  in  field  tests.  Since  they 
yield  sparingly  of  seed  an  effort  is  being  made  to  in- 
crease the  seed  production  of  these  hardy  forms.  It 
seems  quite  probable  that  these  hardy  alfalfas  must  be 
grown  in  warmer  climates  to  produce  seed  for  planting 
in  the  Middle  Northwest. 

Barley  was  represented  by  abbut  20,000  plants,  4x4 
inches  apart,  one-third  of  which  were  of  numerous 
hybrids  from  crosses  made  during  the  past  eight  years. 
One-third  was  under  selection  to  produce  new  varieties 
and  another  third  was  devoted  to  theoretical  experi- 
ments. Among  these  are  efforts  to  find  how  to  breed 
early  and  late  varieties  of  barley  and  also  varieties  which 
will  stand  erect  on  the  rich  fields  of  the  stock-raiser. 

Of  white  beans  there  were  several  thousands  of 


82  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

plants,  12X12  inches  apart,  in  the  breeding  nursery  and 
twenty  newly-bred  sorts  in  field  plots,  where  the  final 
selection  is  to  be  made  before  disseminating  the  one  or 
few  best  kinds. 

Of  sugar  and  stock  beets  there  were  many  thousands 
of  plants,  of  which  1,500  were  mother  plants,  the 
mother  roots  of  which  had  been  siloed  or  pitted.  They 
were  planted  late  and  owing  in  part  to  the  very  cold 
wet  season  only  a  partial  crop  of  seed  was  secured. 
It  has  been  proved  by  trials  for  three  winters,  how- 
ever, that  the  mother  beets  may  be  successfully  kept 
over  winter  in  pits  in  this  climate. 

Corn  was  represented'  by  about  20,000  plants  in 
nursery  rows,  planted  42x18  inches  apart.  One  variety, 
Minn.  No.  13,  has  been  distributed  for  several  years 
by  the  station  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  it 
are  now  annually  grown  throughout  the  state,  both  in 
hills  for  ears  and  thickly  in  drills  for  dry  fodder  and 
for  silage.  It  has  been  adopted  by  the  South  Dakota 
station  as  the  best  to  distribute  to  the  South  Dakota 
farmers.  Like  some  trotting  horses  this  variety  "per- 
forms better  than  it  looks."  In  the  breeding  of  this 
variety  much  more  attention  has  been  given  to  increas- 
ing the  yield  in  the  north  zone  of  the  corn-belt  by  statis- 
tical methods  than  to  securing  uniformity  or  to  making 
it  appear  attractive.  While  most  corn  breeders  are 
going  far  to  the  other  extreme  I  am  convinced  that  we 
could  well  have  paid  much  more  attention  to  appear- 
ance. 

*'We  have  stood  up  so  straight  that  we  have  leaned 
backward"  in  breeding  almost  wholly  for  earliness  and 
yield. 

During  the  past  two  seasons  the  wet  cold  weather 
and  heavy  autumnal  frosts  caught  many  varieties  in 
sections  where  this  variety  succeeded.  We  have  lat- 
terly bred  this  variety  for  greater  uniformity  and  it  is 
responding  to  selection  for  looks  as  it  did  earlier  to 
selection  for  earliness  and  larger  yield.  The  experi- 
ments with  this  com  show  that  looks  must  not  be  ig- 


Breeding  Experiments  at  the  Minnesota  Station.    83 

nored  any  more  than  records  of  performance.  We  need 
the  methods  of  show  judging  and  the  methods  of  the 
statistician  combined.  Bromus  was  planted  2x2  feet 
apart  and  should  have  been  3x3  feet  apart  in  a  few 
thovisand  nursery  hills  and  as  winter  approached  many 
of  these  plants,  each  from  a  single  hill,  had  a  spread  of 
nearly  two  feet.  This  grass  spreads  so  vigorously  and  its 
underground  stems  are  so  tenacious  that  the  question 
has  arisen  as  to  whether  we  should  not  select  it  for 
varieties  for  moister  climates  which  have  less  of  the 
quack  grass  tendency  of  too  great  persistency  when  it 
is  desired  to  destroy  it  in  the  rotation.  The  variation 
in  height,  in  yield  of  forage  and  of  seed  in  individual 
plants  is  very  unusual  in  this  variety.  Eight  new  varie- 
ties originated  seven  years  ago,  each  from  a  single 
mother  plant,  which  have  been  in  field  tests  for  several 
years,  promise  to  provide  a  few  superior  kinds  of  this 
species,  which  is  still  new  to  American  farmers. 

The  cowpea  nursery  was  well  nigh  a  failure,  both 
in  1902  and  1903.  These  were  the  coldest,  wettest 
seasons  ever  experienced  in  Minnesota  for  late  plants 
and  none  of  the  2,000  cowpea  plants,  3x3  feet  apart, 
of  either  year  matured  seeds.  This  plant  will  require 
such  radical  modification  to  adapt  it  to  producing  seeds 
for  use  for  forage  crops  in  this  climate  that  trying  to 
breed  it  earlier  in  Minnesota  is  som.ewhat  discouragine;. 

Red  clover  has  been  under  experimentation  in  the 
plant  breeding  nursery  for  thirteen  years  and  the  results 
were  very  meager  until  the  past  few  years.  The  efforts 
to  secure  hardier  blood  lines  have  been  persistent  and 
methods  more  recently  adopted  give  promise  of  good 
results.  In  breeding  this  species  the  effort  to  select  for 
distinguishing  marks  cost  years  of  labor  and  resulted 
in  not  only  the  loss  of  the  labor  but  the  loss  temporarily 
of  an  opportunity  to  give  to  the  Northwest  a  hardier 
clover.  We  bred  from  white  and  pale  pink  colored 
flowered  sports  instead  of  going  directly  for  hardy 
pkmts.  Many  breeders  of  plants  and  animals  who  are 
trying  to  breed  for  intrinsic  value  by  selecting  to  some 


S4  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals. 

peculiar  color  or  form  should  take  warning  from  this 
experiment.  I  am  not  sure  but  this  and  the  experiment 
mentioned  above  with  com  are  the  most  important 
experiments  we  have  finished  in  breeding  plants  at  the 
Minnesota  Experiment  Station.  Trying  to  breed  values 
into  plants  by  breeding  to  some  color  or  to  some  fanci- 
ful form  or  to  breed  animals  by  selecting  ta  color  of 
coat  or  to  some  feature  or  form  not  based  strictly'  on 
physiological  grounds  is  like  a  man  trying  to  gain  en'- 
during  distinction  by  means  of  choice  clothing  or  by 
skill  in  the  m.ere  social  arts.  Broad-minded  breeding 
takes  into  consideration  all  essentials  both  of  appear- 
ance and  of  performing  ability,  also  of  uniformity. 
Every  variety  or  breed  is  such  a  complex  proposition 
that  breeding  for  one  feature  is  not  sufficient.  The 
nnal  economic  unit  is  a  combination  of  many  units, 
some  of  which  at  first  may  seem  almost  antagonistic  to 
each  other. 

Flax  breeding  as  represented  in  the  nursery  by 
13,000  plants,  4x4  inches  apart,  and  by  numerous 
varieties  grown  in  field  test  plots.  Starting  with  ordin- 
ary flax,  which  grows  about  twenty-six  inches  tall, 
adding  ten  inches  in  height  has  proved  an  easy  task, 
thus  apparently  overcoming  the  fault  of  our  dry  cli- 
mate, and  making  possible  the  production  of  long-line 
flax  fiber  in  the  Northwest.  Numerous  varieties  bred  for 
larger  yields  of  seed  are  under  trial  in  field  plots,  some 
of  which  are  very  promising.  In  fact,  more  profound 
changes  have  been  produced  in  flax  than  in  the  case  of 
any  other  crop.  The  common  Minnesota  and  Dakota  flax 
was  used  as  the  parent  variety.  In  1903  four  stocks  of 
the  original  variety,  secured  from  four  seedsmen,  were 
planted  in  field  plots  in  a  rented  field  (not  especially 
prepared)  and  beside  these  were  planted  new  seed 
varieties  and  also  four  new  varieties  bred  for  finer 
fiber.  The  four  original  varieties  averaged  11.9  busb^""- 
of  seed  per  acre;  the  best  four  varieties  bred  for  seed 
yielded  17.5  bushels  per  acre;  while  the  four  fiber 
varieties  yielded  only  10.5  bushels.     The  four  parent 


Breeding  Experiments  ad  the  Minnesota  Station,   85 

stocks  stood  24  inches  tall,  while  the  four  fiber  varieties 
stood  35  inches  tall,  and  the  four  seed  varieties  stood 
23  inches  tall.  It  is  expected  that  half  the  increase  in 
yield  of  seed  will  persist  on  the  farms  of  the  Northw«:st, 
and  that  the  full  gain  in  length  of  straw  will  be  a  per- 
manent gain  in  lengthening  the  fiber  in  this  climate, 
which  is  too  hot  and  dry  to  produce  long  line  fiber  from 
ordinary  flax. 

Millets  were  represented  by  over  5,000  nursery 
plants,  4x4  inches  apart.  The  millets  are  not  as  easy 
to  breed  as  many  other  crops,  but  some  good  varieties 
have  been  increased  in  quantity  sufficient  for  field  tests. 

In  the  oat  nursery  there  were  16,000  plants  4x4 
inches  apart,  and  a  large  number  have  been  increased 
for  planting  in  field  two  plots  and  in  1903  these  made 
a  most  favorable  showing.  Among  these  are  numerous 
hybrids,  some  of  which  are  being  especially  bred  to 
stand  erect  on  the  richly  manured  fields  of  the  stock 
farm.  Many  farmers  are  constantly  seeking  oats  with 
stifTer  straw  and  it  is  hoped  that  some  new  varieties 
now  being  tested  will  continue  their  present  showing  of 
great  strength  combined  with  superior  quality  and 
yield  of  grain. 

Of  winter  rye  36,000  plants  in  nursery  hills,  4x4 
inches  apart,  show  a  good  beginning-  for  new  varieties. 
Rye  is  nearly  hardy,  and  besides  working  for  hardi- 
ness especial  stress  is  laid  on  increasing  the  yield.  Rye 
is  freely  open-pollenated  and  the  plans  for  breeding  it 
are  being  radically  revised. 

Twelve  thousand  sorghum  plants  put  in  late  did  not 
ripen  in  1902  and  the  old  seed  was  used  again  in  1903 
with  similarly  discouraging  results.' 

Soy  beans  were  the  most  beautiful  crop  in  the  nur- 
sery in  1902.  The  plants,  18x18  inches  apart,  standing 
over  two  feet  tall  in  nursery  centgener  plots,  15  feet 
square,  made  a  very  pretty  appearance.  The  frost  cut 
most  of  them  both  in  1902  and  1903,  though  in  previous 
years  substantial  gains  in  yield  were  being  secured. 
The  results  of  several  years'  work  with  soy  beans  give 


S6  Breeding  of  Plants  and  Animals. 

encouragement.  The  small  yellow  variety  commonly 
grown  in  Kansas  is  being  used  as  the  main  foundation 
stock,  but  no  doubt  better  varieties  for  this  northern 
climate  will  be  found. 

The  fourteen  new  varieties  of  timothy  started  four- 
teen years  ago  were  in  field  plots  planted  in  1900,  1901 
and  1902.  It  was  necessary  to  plow  under  all  but  the 
plots  planked  in  1903,  because  the  dry  weather  of  the 
two  previous  years  had  caused  stands  oi  grass  too  poor 
and  irregular  to  serv^  for  purposes  of  comparison  to 
determine  which  will  yield  best.  In  1903  volunteer 
clover  coming  up  irregularly  in  the  plots  on  our 
crowded  little  experiment  farm  placed  our  field  com- 
parisons another  year  ofT.  After  fourteen  years  of 
work  and  waiting  for  statistical  records,  yet  two  years 
in  the  future,  one  feels  tempted  to  follow  the  example 
of  the  breeder  of  meat  producing  animals  and  choose 
for  distribution  the  plants  which  are  best  in  appearance 
without  more  testing.  And  breeders  must  be  practical^ 
and  it  is  as  impractical  to  depend  wholly  on  statistics 
as  to  be  guided  solely  by  appearance.  But  with  the  help 
of  co-operating  stations  it  is  hoped  that  in  two  or  more 
years  we  shall  know  which  of  these  fourteen  kinds  of 
timothy  should  be  sent  out  backed  with  a  pedigree  giv- 
ing relative  yields  and  values  as  food.  A  little  more 
patient  waiting  may  give  statistical  pedigrees  which  will 
fasten  the  interests  of  fanners  and  dealers  to  whichever 
kind  we  may  find  the  best  yielder  of  superior  crops. 
Varieties  which  have  no  distinguishing  marks  must  be 
backed  by  statistical  records.  Some  of  our  new  varie- 
ties of  timothy  have  been  bred  for  branched,  or  "barb- 
ed" spikes,  and  these  may  be  able  better  to  gain  wide 
use  because  their  statistical  records  can  be  attached  to 
a  description  as  well  as  to  a  name  or  number. 

Of  winter  w^heat  50,000  plants,  4x4  inches  apart, 
were  planted  in  August  and  September,  1902,  and 
practically  all  survived  the  cold  and  made  splendid 
yields  in  1903.  Some  field  plots  planted  to  our  hardi- 
est forms  of  winter  wheat  came  through  the  past  two- 


Breeding  Experiments  at  the  Minnesota  Station.    87 

winters  and  yielded  nearly  double  the  crop  secured 
from  our  standard  hard  spring  wheats,  or  35  to  47 
bushels  per  acre,  which  we  count  as  encouraging  for 
as  far  north  as  St.  Paul.  Winter  wheat  is  moving 
northward  and  experiments  to  make  it  hardier  are  giv- 
ing promise  of  being  effective.  Still  larger  numbers 
were  planted  in  1903  and  are  now  going  into  the  winter 
(Oct.  23)  in  fine  form.  We  have  found  it  necessary  to 
plant  winter  wheat  very  early  here  in  the  North,  pre- 
ferably in  August,  that  it  may  grow  large  and  better 
endure  the  winter. 

Of  sprmg  wheat  50,000  plants,  4x4  inches  apart, 
were  devoted  to  straight  selection,  selection  of  hybrids 
and  starting  new  hybrids,  and  35,000  to  theoretical  ex- 
periments in  1902  and  again  in  1903.  Among  the  latter 
are  experiments  to  increase  rust  resistance,  selecting 
for  strong  chaff  which  will  prevent  shelling,  time  re- 
quired to  reduce  hybrids  to  a  uniform  type,  comparison 
of  improvement  by  selection  alone  with  improvement 
by  hybridizing  followed  by  selection,  breeding  wheat 
on  good  versus  ^poor  soil  and  so  on.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  in  this  connection  that  new  wheats  originated  at 
this  station  are  winning  for  themselves  prominent  places 
with  the  farmers  of  Minnesota.  Minn.  No.  163,  of  fife 
parentage,  yielded  at  the  University  farm  during  the 
first  five  years  of  its  trial  2.8  bushels  more  than  its 
parent  variety.  It  was  distributed  to  over  100  farmers 
in  1899.  Thirty-eight  reports  from  these  farmers  com- 
pared it  in  a  just  manner  with  their  own  wheats  and 
gave  an  average  of  16.7  bushels  far  their  wheats  and 
18. 1  bushels  for  Minn.  No.  163,  an  increase  of  1.4 
busliels  or  S  per  cent.  In  1902  and  1003  it  is  estimated 
that  loc'/jco  acres  of  this  variety  were  planted  and 
that  it  z6dtd  a  dollar  in  value  to  each  acre. 

Minn.  No.  169  wheat,  a  newly  bred  strain  of  blue- 
stem,  was  first  distributed  in  1902,  nearly  400  farmers 
each  purchasing  of  the  station  four  bushels.  Eighty- 
nine  farmers  made  reports  of  tests  where  the  new  and 
their  common  wheats  were  tested  under  similar  condi- 


88  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

tions.  The  average  for  the  common  wheats  was  18.2 
bushels,  and  the  average  of  Minn,  No.  169  wheat  was 
21.5,  a  gain  of  3.3  bushels,  or  18  per  cent.  Wheat  has 
been  our  most  fruitful  species  in  lessons  in  heredity  and 
breeding,  in  part  because  it  has  been  bred  most  exten- 
sively and  has  been  most  used  in  theoretical  experi- 
ments. 

The  above  summary  is  given  mainly  to  show  that 
this  work  is  being  taken  up  extensively  as  well  as  in- 
tensely, and  that  results  of  vast  economic  importance 
are  being  reached.  The  gradual  evolution  of  systematic 
plans  for  planting,  recording  notes,  harvesting,  labora- 
tory testing  and  summarizing  results  has  made  it  pos- 
sible to  handle  nurseries  containing  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  plants.  A  force  of  helpers  can  be  organized 
to  thus  breed  plants  as  well  as  to  run  a  large  bank  or 
a  department  store.  The  first  thing  is  to  realize  the  im- 
portance of  work  which  may  and  will  annually  add 
many  millions  of  dollars  of  wealth  to  the  products  of 
our  farms.  Complexity,  extensiveness,  and  difficulty 
of  organization  should  not  be  in  the  way  of  adequate 
organization  and  expenditure  to  greatly  increase  the 
efficiency  of  either  animal  breeding  or  plant  breeding 
in  America.  Men  have  arisen  who  are  capable  of  lead- 
ing in  the  organization  of  capital  in  most  complex  lines 
of  manufacture,  commerce  and  transportation.  Other 
men  are  being  found  to  weld  together  into  co-operative 
association  the  discordant  units  of  labor  interests.  The 
first  thing  needing  demonstration  in  animal  breeding 
is  that  it  must  be  undertaken  in  a  large  way.  The  use 
of  large  numbers  under  effective  statistical  and  artistic 
methods  makes  necessary  further  co-operation  and  or- 
ganization than  are  now  in  vogue.  Our  breeders'  organ- 
izations and  herd  book  associations,  should  be  evolved 
so  that  they  would  provide  for  even  more  rapid  prog- 
ress than  is  now  being  made. 

I  recently  had  the  pleasure  of  inspecting  the  plant 
breeding  experiments  of  the  South  Dakota  Experiment 
Station,  (1904).    A  good  start  is  being  made  in  treed- 


Breeding  Experiments  at  the  Minnesota  Station   89 

iiig  grain  and  forage  crops,  but  the  work  of  Prof.  N. 
E.  Hansen,  the  horticulturist,  is  phenomenal.  The 
amount  of  fruit  and  vegetable  breeding  he  has  well 
under  way  with  very  limited  resources  is  most  com- 
mendable. On  more  than  forty  acres  of  land  he  has 
growing  of  his  own  breeding  over  a  quarter  of  a  mil- 
lion seedlings,  mostly  hardy  fruits.  He  has  made  thou- 
sands of  hybrids  between  the  wild  fruits  of  the  North- 
west and  of  the  cold  regions  of  Northern  Asia  and 
Northern  Europe,  with  the  better  kinds  of  fruits  which 
lack  'in  hardiness.  He  has  thus  made  hybrid  pears 
which  may  extend  the  pear-belt  hundreds  of  miles  to 
the  northward.  Instead  of  doting  on  theories  he  is 
doing  things,  hybridizing  many  things  that  theories  may 
be  developed  later.  His  faith  expressed  in  works  is  of 
inestimable  value  to  the  Northwest.  The  orchard  on 
the  college  farm  at  Brookings  has  in  it  possibilities 
worthy  the  name  ''South  Dakota's  Million  Dollar  Or- 
chard." Prof.  Hansen  has  hybrids  between  cultivated 
and  wild  species  not  heretofore  hybridized  and  has  de- 
vised most  ingenious  methods  of  doing  two  years' 
work  in  one,  by  growing  shrub  and  tree  fruit  plants 
under  glass  and  cross-pollinating  them  in  winter.  The 
Legislature  of  South  Dakota  should  realize  that  the 
State  has  a  large  asset  in  varieties  already  originated 
at  Brookings  and  provide  Prof.  Hansen  with  better 
facilities.  No  other  experiment  station^  horticulturist 
has  grappled  with  so  difficult  a  problem  in  plant  breed- 
ing and  none  is  doing  the  wonderful  work  of  this 
Americanized  Dane.  Like  Burbank  of  California  he 
bums  up  great  stacks  of  seedling  sand  cherries,  rasp- 
berries, apples  and  other  species,  that  he  may  find  the 
one  in  many  thousands  which  will  be  a  material  im- 
provement. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


FREEBORN  COUNTY  JERSEYS. 


There  is  no  reason  why  America  should  not  lead 
in  animal  breeding  as  in  manufacture,  transportation, 
commerce  and  education.  Our  people  lack  neither  the 
brains  nor  the  patience;  they  have  the  largest  home 
market  for  pure-bred  animals  in  the  world  and  they 
have  secured  a  full  share  of  the  best  live  stock  of  the 
world  as  a  foundation.  Yet  we  continue  to  pay  finan- 
cial tribute  to  the  brains,  the  skill  and  the  live  stock 
instincts  of  the  people  on  the  British  Islands  across 
the  ocean.  They  have  a  plan  of  co-operation  or  con- 
centration by  counties.  They  have  cheaper  labor,  great- 
er variety  of  food,  especially  more  of  succulent  roots, 
a  more  etjuitable  climate,  and  they  have  the  faith  that 
they  are  at  the  top.  We  need  a  better  business  plan, 
a  broader  philosophy  of  seeking  by  combined  statistical 
and  artistic  methods  the  very  few  with  the  best  blood 
from  among  immense  numbers ;  a  better  knowledge  of 
details,  more  faithful  attendance  to  the  wants  of  the 
animals,  a  greater  variety  of  food;  and  we  need  an 
abounding  faith  that  America  is  to  lead  the  world  in 
breed  improvement  and  in  breed  formation.  Our  herd 
books,  based  too  nearly  on  names,  have  led  us  and 
tied  us  into  a  general  situation  quite  as  full  of  folly  as 
the  trenchant  editorial  entitled  "Thou  Shalt  Not"  in 
The  Breeders'  Gazette  of  September,  1902,  portray- 
ed. The  vastness  of  our  country  has  led  us  to  this 
method  of  breeding  mere  pure-breds  rather  than  to  a 
method  of  breeding  on  a  basis  of  thoroughbred  merit 
in  each  locality. 

Breeding  by  counties  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  success 
of  the  breeders  of  Britain.  Here  is  our  very  greatest 
lesson.    The  writer  spent  some  time  in  Europe  in  1899, 


Freeborn  County  Jerseys,  91 

in  part  to  learn  why  many  breeds  have  originated  in 
the  British  Islands  and  few  in  continental  Europe.    The 
Lincoln  County  Fair  gave  the  key.     Here  were  many 
of  the  choicest  ewes  and  rams  of  the  famous  Lincoln- 
shire breed  of  sheep.     Here  the  rival  breeders  met  in 
friendly  intercourse.     The  county  is  not  so  large  but 
that  the  brightest  breeders  may  visit  any  flock  in  which 
a  ram  has  shown  wonderful  powers  m  upbuilding  the 
<[uality  of  the  flock.     The  sires  with  large  transmitting 
power  or  "projecting  efficiency"  are  thus  found  and 
their  blood  is  secured  for  use.     The  production  of  a 
large  number  of  sheep  and  the  interest  manifested  by 
sheep  experts  in  Lincolnshire  result  in  the  education  of 
the  breeders.     The  situation  is  such  that  not  merely 
the  best  individuals  but  those  animals  which  prove  to 
get  the  best  progeny  are  selected  out  of  the  very  large 
numbers  bred  in  the  county.    The  fact  that  the  people 
live  in  farmsteads  on  the  farms  with  lanes  leading  out 
to  the  health-giving  pastures,  favors  English  stock,  but 
the  same  conditions  prevail  here  as  in  England.    That 
the  British  farmer  and  farm  laborer  get  close  to  the 
anim.al's  every  want  is  also  a  large  factor.     Having 
once  made  a  success  of  pedigreed  stock  and  having 
long  reaped  rich  rewards  from  selling  breeding  animals 
to  America  and  to  other  countries  and  supplying  choice 
animal  products  to  their  own  markets,  the  British  have 
had  a  lasting  and  substantial  paying  basis   for  their 
pride  and  interest. 

In  continental  Europe  where  animal  breeding  has 
not  progressed,  breeding  by  counties  or  other  definite 
districts  is  rarely  ever  found.  Too  often  the  farm- 
stead is  in  the  village,  with  only  a  hoof-worn  paddock 
for  the  animals  to  exercise  in.  The  small  and  irregu- 
larly-shaped fields  of  each  farmer  are  often  scattered 
here  and  there  in  diflferent  directions  from  the  village. 
Lanes  to  pastures  are  an  impossibility;  the  animals  do 
not  have  pastures  in  the  summer  time,  and  the  farm- 
ers have  not  taken  such  interest  and  pride  in  their  ani- 
mals, and  consequently  they  have  not  come  in  contact 


92  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

with  the  great  markets  for  high-priced  registered  stock 
and  there  has  been  no  such  general  impulse  to  do  high- 
class  breeding  as  in  England  or  America.  With  seeds 
the  reverse  has  been  true  and  continental  Europe  has 
bred  beets,  wheats,  oats,  rye,  vegetables  and  orna- 
mentals much  more  extensively  than  has  Britain. 

The  Island  of  Jersey  also  has  a  lesson  for  us.  Here 
the  stock  has  been  kept  pure  by  a  law  making  it  illegal 
to  import  live  animals.  A  thorough  system  of  eye  in- 
spection, grading  the  cattle  into  registered,  commended 
and  not  commended  classes,  has  long  been  maintained 
and  something  has  been  done  in  basing  the  choice  of 
breeding  stock  on  records  of  actual  performance.  Jer- 
seymen  would  be  better  able  to  ask  even  larger  prices 
for  thtir  dairy  blood  if  their  records  were  based  more 
on  statistical  records  of  ability  to  produce  annual  net 
profits.  If  one  wished  now  to  select  the  best  possible 
foundation  animals  for  a  herd  of  Jersey  cattle  he  would 
no  doubt  choose  most  of  his  stock  from  herds  outside 
the  famous  island.  Our  own  American  breeders  have 
more  records  of  the  average  annual  milk  yield  of  entire 
families  of  cows  than  have  the  island  breeders,  to  serve 
as  a  guide  to  purchasers.  They  also  have  more  records 
of  the  richness  of  the  milk  in  fats.  Some  Americans 
have  still  other  facts  more  or  less  systematically  kept, 
as  to  the  fecundity  of  certain  families  of  cows,  their 
freedom  from  abortion  and  from  failure  to  get  in  calf, 
their  resistance  to  tuberculosis,  their  kindness  of  dis- 
position and  the  Hke. 

In  starting  a  new  herd,  if  a  person  were  able  to 
secure  facts  along  all  these  lines  he  would  have  a  basis 
for  judging  many  of  these  cattle  which  he  could  not 
afford  to  ignore  and  he  would  not  choose  cattle  from 
the  Island  of  Jersey  just  because  they  were  from  that 
island.  Authentic  figures  would  be  more  potent  in  pedi- 
grees than  the  word  "imported,"  so  often  used  as  the 
chief  point  in  the  recommendation  of  animals.  One  or 
two  decades  of  breeding  Jersey  cattle  following  a  good 
statistical  rnethod   bv   an  association   in   an   American 


Freeborn  County  Jerseys,  93 

county,  would  result  in  the  accumulation  of  facts  and 
figures  which  would  emphasize  the  value  of  the  blood 
of  the  best  animals  in  the  hands  of  the  association.  The 
name  of  the  county  would  take  the  place  of  Jersey. 
Freeborn  County,  Minnesota;  for  example,  could  so 
breed  Jersey  cattle  that  in  20  years  it  could  gain  the 
reputation  of  being  a  better  place  from  which  to  secure 
Jerseys  than  Jersey  Island.  Breeders  could  make  pedi- 
grees em.anating  from  Freeborn  County  have  as  fetching 
a  meaning  to  the  average  mind  as  "imported  from,  Jer- 
sey" once  had.  And  in  making  these  suggestions  for 
breeding  dairy  cattle,  because  with  this  class  of  ani- 
mals the  subject  can  best  be  illustrated,  it  is  clearly 
borne  in  mind  that  methods  already  in  vogue  are  fairly 
satisfactory  and  are  doing  wonders  in  building  up 
breeds  of  dairy  cattle  in  this  country. 

To  make  this  illustration  more  complete  detailed 
suggestions  concerning  Freeborn  County  dairy  breed- 
ing might  aid.  It  should  be  stated  as  a  reason  for  se- 
lecting this  county  that  here  the  people  already  know 
how  to  co-operate.  Freeborn  is  one  of  the  banner  dairy 
counties  in  Minnesota,  and  here  Prof.  Haecker,  head 
of  the  Minnesota  Dairy  School,  first  found  co-operative 
dairying,  now  generally  introduced,  in  successful  opera- 
tion. The  co-operative  creameries  have  shown  the 
farmers  that  they  can  co-operate  among  themselves  and 
also  with  the  experiment  station  and  that  by  merging 
certain  of  their  interests  they  can  accomplish  greater 
results  individually  and  collectively.  Would  it  not  be 
practical  for  some  such  plan  to  be  adopted  as  is  here 
suggested  ? 

Let  a  large  number  of  farmers,  25,  50  or  100,  form 
a  co-operative  breeders'  association.  Let  each  member 
have  one  vote  for  each  registered  and  accredited  Jersey 
animal  he  owns.  Let  the  association  adopt  stand- 
ards under  which  the  animals  may  become  accredited. 
Devise  a  system  of  records  of  average  an- 
nual milk  and  butter  yields.  Devise,  if  prac- 
ticable,   a    method    of    recording  the    cost    of    food 


94  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

required  by  each  cow  to  produce  a  hundred  pounds 
of  butter  fat.  A  certain  standard  price  of  cattle  foods 
could  be  assumed  for  this  purpose.  Keep  track  of  and 
tabulate  in  the  pedigrees  of  each  animal  all  such  im- 
portant facts  as  freedom  from  tuberculosis ;  the  number 
of  strong  calves  each  cow  produces  during  her  life ;  the 
temperament,  docility  or  viciousness  of  each  cow  and 
bull.  Use  a  score  card  system  of  records  to  preserve 
the  facts  concerning  form,  color,  comeliness,  weight 
and  other  general  facts  concerning  each  animal  and 
family.  Devise  a  system  of  tabulating  these  records  so 
as  to  show  the  individual  values  and  the  transmitting 
powers  of  each  mature  individual.  Show  also  the  pros- 
pective breeding  values  of  all  young  animals,  as  indi- 
cated by  the  average  values  of  the  ancestral  blood  lines 
centering  in  them..  In  this  manner  the  poorest  stock 
could  be  rapidly  eliminated.  Such  a  scheme  of  statisti- 
cal pedigrees  w^ould  soon  so  accredit  all  the-^best  fami- 
lies of  animals  that  the  surplus  of  bulls  and  the  heifers 
of  the  best  blood  lines  could  be  sold  at  high  prices  to 
breeders  and  farmers  in  other  counties,  in  other  States 
and  even  in  foreign  countries.  Let  the  association  in 
some  practical  way  own  or,  better,  merely  control,  all 
the  very  best  individuals  of  the  best  blood  lines  pro- 
duced in  the  county,  that  they  may  not  be  sold  but  used 
as  the  basis  of  improvement  of  the  county  family  or 
strain.  Let  the  mem^bers  keep  on  purchasing  of  the 
best  procurable  blood  from  other  sources.  In  this  way 
secure  and  keep  in  the  county  the  choicest  blood  so 
that  no  outside  breeder  or  other  county  can  claim  super- 
ior strains  of  the  Freeborn  Jerseys.  No  doubt  some 
equitable  form  of  organization  could  be  devised  that 
w^ould  allow  each  member  to  own  his  cows  and  sell  all 
but  the  few  Avhich  promise  to  be  among  the  elect  to  be 
reserved  for  county  breeding.  It  might  prove  best  to 
have  the  association  pay  for  and  hold  the  ownership  of 
animals  which  it  desires  shall  not  be  allowed  to  be  sent 
out  or  used  outside  the  county.  Every  generation  of 
cattle  w^ould  thus  become  a  bovine  aristocracy  above 


Freeborn  County  Jerseys.  95 

the  generation  last  sold  to  outsiders.  And  offerings 
would  sell  at  good  prices,  both  because  of  superior  ex- 
cellence as  shown  by  performance  pedigrees  and  be- 
cause of  the  carefully  sustained  reputation  of  the  coun- 
ty. It  might  even  be  best  for  the  county  to  have  charge 
of  all  sales,  paying  each  owner  the  extra  value  secured 
above  standard  prices. 

To  carry  out  such  a  plan  successfully  certain  essen- 
tials must  be  observed.  The  first  matter  of  importance, 
after  organization  is  perfected,  is  to  secure  sup'erior 
foundation  stock.  The  future  success  depends  very 
largely  on  the  animals  from  which  the  start  is  made. 
The  opportunity  for  securing  superior  males  and  fe- 
males is  indeed  very  great.  All  the  best  herds  in 
America,  England  and  Jersey,  and  even  herds  in  other 
countries,  are  a  source  of  hundreds  of  thousands  from 
which  to  select.  If  some  one  trained  in  such  work  were 
employed  for  one  or  more  years  to  review  by  corres- 
pondence and  by  visitation  all  the  best  available  herds 
and  to  select  the  best  that  could  be  purchased  at  rea- 
sonable prices  some  of  the  choicest  Jerseys  in  the  world 
could  be  brought  together.  The  investment  would 
necessarily  be  large  and  after  testing  those  first  secured 
and  discarding  those  of  lesser  value  it  might  be  wise 
to  purchase  still  others.  The  hundreds  thus  selected 
from  hundreds  of  thousands  should  average  high  in 
value.  But  of  paramount  importance  is  the  fact  that 
among  these  there  would  surely  be  many  which  would 
become  record-breakers  under  more  rigid  tests  than 
are  applied  in  present  methods  of  breeding,  and  a  fair 
number  would  prove  to  be  strong  in  producing  progeny 
of  high  average  value,  the  most  important  test  of  all. 

The  next  step  seems  difficult.,  viz. :  testing  and  re- 
cording the  values  of  these  foundation  animals  and 
of  their  progeny,  that  all  but  the  few  very  best  may 
be  discarded.  No  doubt  records  already  gathered  by 
dairy  experimenters  and  by  our  most  careful  breeders 
would  serve  in  formulating  plans  which  would  greatly 
aid  in  making  these  tests  practicable.    The  many  entire- 


96  Breeding  Phnts  and  Animals. 

year  records  of  food  eaten  and  of  product  for  individual 
cows  in  the  Minnesota  Experiment  Station,  for  example 
would  yield  data  on  the  frequency  necessary  to  make 
tests.  Experiments  inaugurated  by  Prof.  Carlyle  at  the 
Wisconsin  station  would  give  vahiable  facts  as  to  the 
variation  in  food  requirements  of  different  cows.  Mr. 
Glover's  experimental  studies  of  dairy  herds  in  North- 
ern Illinois  would  give  valuable  information  as  to  how 
to  make  tests  and  keep  records  in  the  herd.  Possibly 
weighing  the  milk  daily  and  analyzing  for  fat  once  a 
week,  with  monthly  checks  by  a  disinterested  inspector 
would  be  a  sufficient  basis  for  records  of  the  product. 
The  cost  of  daily  milk  weighing  and  monthly  testing 
for  fat  would  be  small.  Where  the  milk  is  weighed 
daily  hired  milkers  are  more  careful  to  get  all  the  milk, 
and  the  owner  can  more  readily  discover  carelessness 
in  milking,  as  shown  by  reduced  yields,  and  a  better 
knowledge  can  be  had  daily  of  the  health  and  require- 
ments of  each  cow.  Weighing  the  milk  often  pays 
merely  in  securing  cleaner  milking,  thus  better  keeping 
up  the  flow.  The  feeding  experiments  would  neces- 
sarily need  to  be  long  conducted  with  uniform  food  in 
winter  time,  and  might  be  better  if  the  cows  could  be 
taken  to  a  central  test  barn.  These  various  tests  will 
not  appear  so  expensive  when  once  it  is  fully  realized 
tliat  only  the  best  cows  and  their  fem.ale  progeny  w^ould 
need  to  be  subjected  to  them.  On  the  other  hand,  large 
returns  from  future  sales  of  breeding  stock  and  superior 
animals  for  the  dairy  herd  of  the  county  would  war- 
rant a  large  expenditure  in  establishing  a  county  strain 
or  breed  with  its  record  based  mainly  on  the  solid 
ground  of  performance.  Herfordshire  has  reaped  prof- 
its which  would  have  paid  dividends  on  a  large  invest- 
ment in  working  up  the  blood  of  the  ''white-face"  breed 
A' number  of  other  counties  in  England  have  done  like- 
wise with  their  respective  breeds  of  cattle,  sheep,  horses 
and  swine. 

To  give  the  records  actual  value  and  to  have  them 
accepted  by  the  public  it  would  be  necessary  to  lafe- 


Freeborn  County  Jerseys,  97 

guard  against  fraud.  There  would  be  need  of  disin- 
terested supervision  of  all  tests.  After  some  years  oven 
larger  values  would  begin  to  attach  to  certain  blood 
lines  than  are  now  found  in  dairy  breeds,  and  as  is  now 
the  case  with  trotting- horse  blood,  for  example,  which 
has  families  with  many  representatives  in  the  2:10  list. 
The  owner  of  an  animal  could  better  exploit  records 
made  or  at  least  verified  by  an  official  of  tlie  county  co- 
cperal^ve  breeders'  association  than  if  made  by  himself 
and  his  employes.  The  county  or  better  the  State 
might  provide  supervision  and  thus  aid  in  breeding 
scientifically  and  in  giving  reputation  based  on  authen- 
ticated records  to  animals  of  known  superiority.  The 
public  has  a  large  interest  in  animals  which  do  not 
merely  appear  superior  and  hardly  pay  their  board  buc 
which  actually  yield  better  profits.  And  especially  farm- 
ers, w^ho  desire  to  purchase  bulls  for  grading  up  their 
herds,  have  collectively  at  stake  large  sums  of  money. 
Six  bulls,  each  used  two  years,  will  entirely  transform 
a  dairy  herd.  At  the  end  of  the  twelve  years  there  is 
very  little  of  the  blood  of  the  original  herd  of  females 
The  projected  efficiency  of  the  six  dairy  bulls  may 
easily  modify  the  profits  of  the  dairy  farmer,  so  that 
histead  of  failure  or  indifferent  success  he  can  have  a 
good  income.  The  county  and  State  might  properly 
tram,  employ  and  support  men  to  serve  as  county  stock- 
recorders  and  judges. 

Still  other  and  better  plans  might  be  suggested  but 
the  objective  point  is  to  secure  breeds  with  larger  gen- 
eral average  value,  breeds  that  are  not  fanciful  but 
n  vhich  there  is  more  profit  and  connected  with  which 
is  the  evidence  of  superiority  overcoming  doubt  and 
causing  their  general  use.  France  found  it  profitable 
to  own  and  to  regulate  the  use  of  stallions,  and  supply- 
ing bulls  at  public  expense  has  been  suggested.  But 
the  w^riter  has  faith  that  we  are  coming  to  a  period  of 
agricultural  co-operation  under  which  associations  will 
make  far  more  rapid  progress.  Once  our  agricultural 
colleges  earnestly  enter  upon  experimentation  in  ani- 


98  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

mal  breeding  the  importance  of  these  statistical  methods 
will  be  magnified.  Now  these  institutions  teach  the 
judging  of  animals  by  the  eye  and  the  laying  on  of 
hands,  and  this  artistic  work  is  a  long  stride  in  the 
right  direction,  but  they  wilt  also  devise  and  teach 
scientific  methods  of  breed  improvement  and  breed  for- 
mation. The  statistical  and  artistic  methods  will  be 
combined,  giving  each  due  consideration. 

There  is  a  realm  of  effort  yet  untouched  in  hybrid- 
izing breeds  and  even  in  hybridizing  species.  Hybrid- 
izing in  plants  has  become  a  most  potent  force  in  plant 
improvement.  But  in  animals  hybridizing  requires  so 
much  time,  such  large  numbers  of  expensive  individu- 
als must  be  used  and  there  is  after  all  such  an  element 
of  uncertainty  that  individuals,  large  corporations,  and 
even  very  large  co-operative  associations  engaged  in 
breeding  as  a  rule  had  far  better  limit  their  work  to 
existing  breeds.  One  very  important  reason  for  this  is 
that  the  animals  bred  by  such  an  association,  having 
originated  from  registered  stock,  would  all  be  eligible 
for  registration  and  would  be  available  to  use  on  all 
other  registered  herds  of  the  same  breed  all  over  the 
country.  Breeders  of  registered  animals,  not  farmers 
who  wish  only  to  grade  up,  form  the  market  for  high- 
priced  breeding  animals.  The  general  breeders,  how- 
ever, will  in  turn  depend  on  the  farmers  for  a  market 
for  their  males  and  surplus  females. 

The  greatest  drawback  to  profits  in  breeding  dairy 
cattle,  as  compared  with  breeding  beef  cattle,  is  that 
the  bulls  become  a  drug  on  the  market  and  few  can  be 
sold  at  high  prices.  This  method  of  statistical  records 
to  emphasize  the  value  of  the  blood  of  certain  strains 
would  overcome  the  low  prices  now  placed  on  bulls. 
Figures  would  help  the  farmer  to  see  the  value  0/ 
blood  ^otent  at  the  butter-tub,  and  he  would  be  willing 
to  pay  better  prices  for  the  best  blood.  The  breeder 
of  pedigreed  cattle  in  turn,  having  bulls  supplied  to 
head  his  herd,  with  records  of  performance  in  the  fam- 
ilies behind  them,  could  pay  more  and  could  command 


Freeborn  County  Jerseys.  99 

higher  prices  for  bulls  sold  to  dairy  farmers.  Cows 
thus  bred  would  have  a  sale  at  higher  prices  to  breeders 
and  dairy  farmers  depending  on  purchasing  their  milch 
cows  would  soon  learn  to  pay  for  pedigree.  Men 
would  learn  to  develop  breeders  not  merely  for  the 
high-class  dairymen  but  for  the  average  good  dairy 
farmer. 

Such  an  association  could  have  system  in  its  sales. 
A  monthly  county  or  township  sale  day  might  be  found 
useful.    Auctioneers,  trained  in  displaying  performance 
records,  could  greatly  assist  in  securing  long  prices  at 
State  fairs  and  at  other  large  sales.     Auctioneers  are 
hungering  for  such  record  pedigrees.     The  study  of 
statistical  pedigrees  at  schools  of  agriculture  would  take 
on  a  new  meaning  if  each  State  had  numerous  county 
breeds  of  domestic  animals  under  some  such  plan  as 
suggested.     Schools  of  animal  judging  would  become 
more  truly  schools  of  breeding.     The  men  who  would 
embark  in  such  a  co-operative  enterprise  would  find  it 
necessary  to  invest  in  a  rather  long-time  proposition. 
But  the  females  purchased  at  rather  large  prices  would 
serve  well  in  the  dairy  and  would  pay  the  earlier  ex- 
penses.    The  bulls  besides  serving  the  cows  especially 
selected,  would  be  very  valuable  to  serve  other  regis- 
tered and  also  grade  cows.     There  would  be  some  in- 
convenience to  farmers  in  conforming  to  the  rules  of  an 
association,  but  on  the  other  hand  there  is  an  advantage 
in  learning  how  to  co-operate.    Men  grow  under  disci- 
pline, and  such  an  association  would  serve  as  a  most 
valuable  school  to  develop  men.    The  whole  community 
would  be  united  in  a  delightful  way  to  accomplish  a 
worthy  object.    The  members  would  soon  feel  a  great 
pride  in  the  whole  enterprise.    Rivalry  with  similar  as- 
sociations elsewhere  breeding  Jerseys,  Holsteins,  beef 
Short-horns   or  dual-purposes   cattle   would    have    its 
value  both  in  adding  zest  to  the  work  and  in  insuring 
better  results.    The  criticisms  of  our  rivals  often  serve 
to  best  educate  us  as  to  how  to  excel. 

In  all  this  the  large  expense  and  effort  are  warranted 


TOO  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

by  that  5,  10,  20  per  cent  or  more  which  may  be  eventu- 
ally added  to  the  income  from  the  cows  which  produce 
the  dairy  products.  The  more  systematic  business,  the 
more  enjoyable  occupation,  the  more  extended  touch 
with  one's  fellows  brought  about  by  such  a  plan  would 
add  to  the  remuneration.  Ten  per  cent  eventually  add- 
ed to  the  dairy  products  of  Minnesota  by  thus  breeding 
better  animals  seems  possible.  This  represents  millions 
of  dollars  annually.  If  10  bulls  and  50  cows  of  highest 
breeding  quality  could  thiis  be  selected  out  of  several 
hundred  of  the  choicest  animals  chosen  from  among 
the  best  dairy  herds  in  the  world,  and  these  60  animals 
be  used  as  the  basis  of  a  distinct  family  of  Jerseys,  all 
with  authentic  pedigreed  records  of  performance  and 
under  continual  improvement,  the  cost  could  not  nearly 
equal  the  gain.  Since  the  breeders  can  secure  for  them- 
selves only  a  small  part  of  the  gain  could  not  the  State 
well  afford^to  help  promote  the  breeding  for  the  good 
that  would  come  to  all  concerned? 

All  will  admit  the  size  of  the  goal,  and  those  who 
would  adversely  criticise  the  suggestions  will  please  the 
writer  by  pitting  against  the  proposed  plan  either  the 
methods  now  in  vogue  or  other  new  plans.  This  is  an 
age  of  discussion. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

MOWER  COUNTY  SHORT-HORNS. 

While  dairy  farming  is  one  of  the  most  profitable 
lines  of  production  for  the  general  farmer  on  small  and 
medium-sized  farms,  beef  production  is  nearly  as  profit- 
able and  is  one  of  the  most  enjoyable.  The  dairyman 
in  part  pays  for  his  larger  ^profits  by  working  longer 
hours,  by  housing  more  hired  men  and  by  himself  and 
his  family  carrying  greater  burdens.  The  beef  farmer 
gets  less  gross  income  and  less  net  money  profit,  but 
his  chores  are  done  quicker;  he  needs  hired  help  only 
at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  Now  that  ranch  pro- 
duction of  meats  has  reached  its  zenith  and  the  growth 
of  our  cities  continues  to  increase  the  demand  for  meats, 
we  can  hope  for  the  prices  of  beef  to  average  higher 
in  future  than  they  have  during  the  last  decade  of  the 
past  century. 

Hereafter  range  production  will  not  control  the 
price  of  meats.  The  great  regions  of  arable  farms  will 
regulate  the  supply  and  the  price.  When  prices  are 
high,  Illinois^  Indiana,  Ohio  and  the  States  which  sur- 
round them  will  increase  their  product,  and  when  pro- 
duction exceeds  the  demand  a  less  number  of  cattle 
will  be  raised  in  this  great  region  of  live  stock  farming. 
Special-purpose  beef  cattle  will  no  doubt  be  raised  in 
large  numbers  in  the  region  named.  We  will  have  an 
increasing  number  of  breeders  of  special-purpose  beef 
cattle  to  supply  bulls  for  ranches  and  for  farmers  who 
raise  beef.  These  breeders  will  promote  the  business 
of  raising  special-purpose  beef  cattle  among  farmers'  to 
whom  they  desire  to  sell  registered  bulls  and  females. 
Prof.  J.  H.  Shepperd  of  the  North  Dakota  Experiment 
Station,  in  a  paper  before  the  recent  meeting  of  the 


•  Y  -> 


1 02  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

American  Breeders'  Association,  urged  that  ranchmen 
breed  bulls  for  ranch  use. 

But  the  chief  opposition  the  breeders  of  special-pur- 
pose Short-horns  must  eventually  meet  is  from  the 
breeders  of  milking  Short-horns  and  other  breeds  suited 
to  the  production  of  both  milk  and  meat.  Some  fami- 
lies of  Short-horn  cattle  are  specialized  toward  beef 
nearly  as  completely  as  are  the  Hereford  or  Aberdeen- 
Angus  breeds.  True,  the  atavic  powers  of  these  Short- 
horns to  produce  milk  in  paying  quantities  are  not  sa 
weak  nor  so  remote  in  the  ancestral  lines  as  in  the  other 
breeds  named.  In  some  cases  this  specialization  away 
from  milk  has  gone  too  far,  even  where  the  cows  are 
never  to  be  milked  but  are  to  raise  baby  beef  on  the 
fann  or  export  beef  on  the  range. 

The  large  and  profitable  field  for  the  production  of 
registered  pure-bred  beef  bulls  and  heifers  to  supply 
farmers  and  ranchmen  and  to  fit  our  beginners  in  breed- 
ing registered  stock  will  no  doubt  remain  permanent. 
While  this  is  true  of  Herefords  and  Aberdeen-Angus, 
as  well  as  of  beef  Short-horns,  the  latter  class  of  cattle 
will  best  serve  the  present  purposes  of  illustration. 

In  no  class  of  cattle  has  the  combination  of  mere 
herd  book  name  records  and  visual  judging  at  shows 
led  to  greater  mistakes  than  in  the  breeding  of  some 
families  of  Short-horn  cattle.  We  have  the  anomalous 
condition  of  a  bright  lot  of  breeders  having  idolized 
the  *'reds"  and  neglected  the  "roans"  till  only  the  choic- 
est roans  are  left,  and  the  roans  now  naturally  average 
better  than  the  reds,  as  shown  by  the  fact  that  they  get 
far  more  than  their  proportion  of  prizes  at  shows  as 
compared  with  the  reds. 

But  of  far  more  consequence  is  the  fact  that  the 
Short-horn  breeders  have  succumbed  to  the  dairyman's 
philosophy,  that  special-purpose  cattle  are  the  ''whole 
thing,"  and  in  some  cases  seem  to  have  given  up  three 
parts  in  value  of  milk  for  one  part  additional  in  value 
of  beef.  In  other  \vords  the  dairyman's  talk,  the  ranch- 
man's need  for  beef  sires  and  the  show  judge's  assump- . 


Mower  County  Beef  Shorthorns.  103 

tion  that  he  was  doing  the  impossible  in  accurately  and 
finally  measuring-  the  general  value  by  mei;e  appear- 
ance, have  often  led  the  breeders  of  beef  Short-horns 
too  far  along  the  specializing  path.  Families  of  cows 
in  w^hich  a  fourth  of  the  dams  cannot  supply  sufficient 
milk  to  push  the  calf  forward  for  baby  beef  have  too 
far  departed  from  the  mother  function  to  be  the  most 
valuable,  even  as  beef  animals,  to  say  nothing  of  helping 
to  pay  profits  at  the  pail. 

The  farmers  of  the  great  agricultural  States  want 
beef  cows  which  will  make  the  most  money  per  herd, 
not  those  which  merely  produce  an  occasional  phe- 
nomenal prize-winner  at  fairs.  And  some  of  the  old- 
fashioned  Short-horns  are  really  worth  more  to  the 
stock  farm  than  some  of  the  newer  families  which 
have  been  fashionable. 

Co-operative  organization  in  breeding  beef  Short- 
horns would  enable  the  use  of  large  numbers  and  the 
making  of  statistical  records  under  official  inspection. 
Just  as  in  dairy  breeding,  greater  emphasis  should  be 
placed  on  families  of  superior  value.  Not  only  should 
the  few  intrinsically  best  out  of  immense  numbers  be 
chosen  by  the  breeders,  but  their  blood  should  be  scien- 
tifically tested  and  systematically  advertised,  that  they 
may  gain  much  wider  use  than  under  present  methods. 

Besides  Freeborn  County,  Minnesota,  mentioned  in 
the  previous  article,  is  Mower  County,  in  which  are 
located  several  breeders,  mostly  beginners,  of  Short- 
horn cattle.  To  aid  in  this  discussion  let  us  assume  that 
Mower  County  leave  the  breeding  of  pure-bred  Jerseys 
to  Freeborn  County  and  Freeborn  County  likewise  al- 
low^ M"owxr  County  to  monopolize  the  breeding  of  spe- 
cial-purpose Short-horns.  The  farmers  of  Freeborn 
County  wdio  wish  a  beef  Short-horn  sire  could  easilv 
go  to  the  neighboring  county  and  by  inspecting  a  num- 
ber of  herds  and  by  studying  official  records  and  com- 
paring prices  be  able  to  secure  bulls  for  upgrading  their 
beef  cattle.  The  dairy  farmers  of  Mower  County,  in 
like  manner,  could  readily  study  the  registered  herds 


104  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

of  Jerseys  in  Freeborn  County,  where  they  would  find 
bulls  to  suit  the  needs  of  their  respective  herds  of  dairy 
cows.  And  from  counties  and  States  around  breeders 
of  registered  Jerseys  and  beef  Short-horns,  and  farm- 
ers who  were  grading  up  their  herds  for  special  dairy 
or  for  special  beef  production,  could  make  pilgrimages 
there,  knowing  that  one  railway  fare  would  t-ike  them 
to  a  number  of  superior  herds  of  the  kind  of  cattle 
wanted.  Such  methods  of  specialization  are  needed  to 
crowd  the  scrub  cow^  and  the  scrub  steer  out  of  ibe 
race.  The  strongest  criticism  made  of  our  breeds  of 
registered  cattle  is  that  they  do  not  rapidly  crowd  out 
the  scrub. 

The  general  plan  of  organization  of  a  county  asso- 
ciation of  breeders  of  Jerseys  mentioned  in  the  last 
article  could  serve  for  the  Short-horn  breeders.  The 
greatest  difference  required  would  be  in  relation  to  the 
methods  of  making  statistical  records  of  individual  and 
of  breeding  values.  Records  of  fecundity,  of  freedom, 
from  tuberculosis  and  of  mature  weight  could  be  made ; 
while  form,  external  signs  of  quality  and  general  ap- 
pearance could  be  judged  with  comparatively  little  mod- 
ification from  plans  now  in  vogue.  The  difficult  prob- 
lems would  be  to  get  measures  of  the  amount  of  food 
the  individual  and  the  fraternity  group  needs  per  loo 
pounds  increase  in  weight;  and  the  value  of  the  car- 
cass as  determined  by  the  percentage  of  lean  meat  to  the 
quality  of  the  meat,  the  block  value  of  the  meat  to  the 
butcher  and  the  like.  No  one  has  any  right  to  say  that 
methods  cannot  be  devised  to  get  at  these  yalues, 
though  it  must  be  admitted  that  some  of  the  problems 
are  difficult.  Investigations  carried  on  by  State  ex- 
periment stations  and  by  the  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture  along  this  line  might  be  very  produc- 
tive of  good. 

The  Minnesota  Experiment  Station  has  equipped  a 
building  in  part  for  such  work,  and  Prof.  Andrew  Boss 


Mower  County  Beef  Shorthorns,  105 

is  making  progress  in  working  out  methods.*  This 
station  sees  in  these  problems  no  greater  difficulty  than 
once  appeared  in  the  problem  of  securing  the  milling 
value  of  hundreds  of  new  varieties  of  wheat.  That  has 
been  accomplished  so  that  with  a  quart  of  a  new  wheat 
its  general  value  for  milling  may  be  determined  ap- 
proximately and  at  a  very  slight  cost.  Here  the  cost 
will  probably  be  great,  but  will  it  not  pay?  Certainly 
the  chances  are  large  enough  so  that  it  will  p^y  to  make 
investigations.  As  often  happens,  while  investigating 
a  problem  to  ferret  out  the  facts  regarding  some  theory, 
we  stumble  upon  related  facts  of  large  practical  value. 
To  illustrate,  the  Minnesota  Experiment  Station  was 
experimenting  to  learn  whether  wheat  could  be  more 
rapidly  improved  by  having  the  breeding  nursery  on 
rich  or  on  lean  soil,  and  in  carrying  out  that  experiment 
we  stum  Died  upon  a  plan  of  arranging  nursery  plats 
m  plant  breeding  which  permitted  the  use  of  |)lanting- 
machines  and  otherwise  revolutionized,  simplified  and 
made  cheaper  and  much  better  the  i!:cneral  plan  of 
breeding  many  of  our  field  crops. 

No  adequate  methods  are  being  made  to  improve 
our  general  methods  of  animal  breeding.  I  dare  say 
that  investigations  along  this  line  will  produce  relatively 
as  large  returns  as  tihe  system  of  feeding  experiments 
now  being  carried  out  in  a  splendid  way  by  experiment- 
ors.  The  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  and 
the  State  experiment  stations  should  attack  many  of  the 
problems  of  how  best  to  improve  breeds  and  how  to 
form  new  breeds. 

Private  breeders  of  Short-horns  will  naturally  ask 
themselves  how  their  business  would  be  affected  by  the 
work  of  county  breeding  associations  should  these  be 
started  in  each  State.  In  the  first  place  these  asso- 
ciations would  become  a  new  market  and  any  breeder 
who  could  satisfy  the  purchasing  agents  by  means  of 
records,  appearance  of  the  animals  and  the  like  that 


•See  Farmers'  Bui.  No.  183.   .    .    .  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agrri. 


io6  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

he  had  something  the  purchaser  of  stock  needed  would 
win  a  credit  Jor  his  herd  larger  than  a  State  fair  prize. 
The  methods  of  breeding  which  would  be  devised  by- 
such  organizations  assisted  by  experiment  station  offi- 
cers and  by  other  especially  employed  men  would  be 
useful  to  all  breeders.  Once  the  association  came  into 
the  market  with  bulls  and  heifers  of  accredited  merit, 
the  private  breeder  would  have  a  source  from  which 
to  secure  male  and  female  foundation  stock  which  would 
soon  give  credit  to  his  own  herd.  He  could  keep  more 
careful  records  than  now,  possibly  under  public  in- 
spection, and  would  have  the  confidence  of  the  public 
more  thoroughly  than  now.  The  general  diffusion  of 
better  cattle  would  give  an  increasing  market  among 
farmers  for  registered  stock. 

If  the  general  plan  here  proposed  succeeded  else- 
where the  private  breeder  might  find  it  practical  to  aid 
in  forming  a  breeders'  association  in  his  own  county. 
One  county  would  not  sit  idly  by  and  see  another  se- 
cure State  aid  for  inspectors  and  it  receive  nothing. 
Possibly  the  State  for  self-protection  might  find  it  nec- 
essary to  limit  the  aid  supplied  to  one  county,  as  by  as- 
suming to  help  with  only  one  or  two  breeds  or  by  limit- 
ing the  amount  of  expenditure  allowed  by  any  one 
county  for  all  breeds.  In  many  cases  large  breeders 
woilld  be  able  successfully  to  compete  with  the  pro- 
posed associations  in  the  market  for  the  choicest  breed- 
ing stocks,  as  they  have  the  advantage  of  a  more  cen- 
tralized management  with  longer  tenure  of  office  of 
those  in  charge  than  could  be  expected  in  an  associa- 
tion. 

Once  such  associations  became  well  established,  and 
ready  to  offer  superior  breeding  animals  backed  by  per- 
formance pedigrees,  private  breeders  would  have  a  new 
source  of  bulls  to  head  their  herds.  Such  counties 
would  be  to  the  breeder  what  Durham  and  surrounding 
counties  in  England  have  been  to  Short-horn  breeders 
everywhere.  In  fact,  these  associations  might  be  able 
to   discount   England   as   a   source   of  superior  blood. 


Mower  County  Beef  Shorthorns.  107 

England  could  remain  at  the  front  only  by  devising 
better  methods  than  the  Yankees  can  devise.  Having 
their  pedigrees  on  a  statistical  rather  than  on  a  mere 
^'certificate  of  names"  basis  would  give  them  a  great 
advantage.  The  difference  in  cost  entailed  by  paying 
importation  charges  would  be  a  very  nice  margin  for 
profits  to  the  members  of  a  county  breeders'  associa- 
tion. Once  superior  stock  were  thus  offered  the  outside 
breeder  could  no  more  aft'ord  to  have  the  superior  sup- 
ply of  males  cut  off  than  could  the  breeders  of  Short- 
horn cattle  a  few  decades  ago  have  afforded  to  be  de- 
barred from  purchasing  bulls  in  England. 

In  like  manner^  we  should  have  centralized  or 
merged  organizations  for  the  breeding  of  Hereford, 
Aberdeen-Angus  and  Galloway  cattle.  While  the 
forms  of  suggestions  here  made  are  somewhat  specific 
they  are  so  principally  to  make  the  matter  clear.  The 
purpose  is  to  set  our  breeders  to  thinking  as  to  how 
America  can  take  the  lead  in  animal  breeding  and  how 
it  can  take  advantage  of  the  following  three 
principles  of  breeding  which  must  be  taken  into  account 
before  highest  success  may  be  expected.  These  three 
principles  are : 

(i)  There  is  one  very  valuable  breeding  animal  or 
plant  in  every  5,000  to  100,000  individuals.  (2)  To 
find  this  occasional  one  superior  breeder,  large  num- 
bers must  be  judged,  tested  and  the  recorded  results 
of  their  breeding  powers  tabulated.  (3)  Once  we  have 
superior  blood  accompanied  by  the  thoroughly  authen- 
ticated, statistical  evidence  of  its  superiority  adequate 
methods  of  bringing  about  its  general  adoption  should 
be  put  into  operation. 

After  all,  these  suggestions  are  not  very  remote 
from  practices  already  followed  in  the  breeding  of 
trotting  horses,  except  in  the  matter  of  cooperative  or- 
ganization. Why  should  it  not  be  possible  for  farm- 
ers who  cooperate  in  managing  creameries  and  schools 
to  cooperate  in  breeding  dairy  or  beef  cattle?  States 
now  furnish  inspectors  to  bring  up  the  grade  of  butter 


io8  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

and  cheese  in  cooperative  factories,  so  why  could  not 
the  State  do  an  equal  or  greater  service  by  assisting  in 
the  breeding  of  animals? 

Tlie  works   of  our  breeders  are  truly   wonderful. 
Whoever  visited   the  recent   International   at   Chicago 
could  not  but  realize  that  most  substantial  progress  has 
been  made.     The  champion  steer  in  1902,  for  example, 
was  a  marvel  of  strength,  richness  and  beauty.     And 
w^hole  herds  of  his  black  sisters  and  brothers  in  the 
show-yards  of  the  recent  shows  have  helped  him  to 
add  highest  glory  to  the  ''doddies."     The  Galloways 
in  their  beautiful  coats  have  come  forward  in  recent 
shows  in  splendid  form.     The  Short-horns  and  Here- 
fords    calmly    divided   honors   with  the  "black-skins," 
remembering  past  honors  and  looking  forward  to  future 
conquests.     The  delighted  visiting  throngs  of  expert 
stockmen,  of  noted  breeders  and  the  interested  lookers- 
on   were  enchanted.     The  consensus   of   opinion   was 
that  beef  stock  had  wellnigh  reached  perfection.    The 
writer  visited  the  show  of  1902  to  place  himself  again 
in  this  spell  of  wonder  and  admiration  brought  on  by 
these  many  show-finished  animals,  and  infectious  from 
man  to  man.    He  wondered  for  a  moment  if  these  ar- 
ticles needing  final  revision  should  be  sent  to  The  Ga- 
zette or  would    it  be  better  to  let  well  enough  alone. 
But  when  his  thoughts  again  went  back  to  the  seed 
laboratory,  which  is  full  of  records  for  a  dozen  genera- 
tions of  the  performing  ability  of  myriads  of  wheat 
plants,  oat  plants,  and  of  other  wealth-producing  forms 
of  plant  life,  he  again  heard  the  silent  message  of  these 
records.     They   remind  the   investigator    that    plants 
yield  to  science  as  well  as  to  art.    They  urge  that  there 
are  "Shakespeares  in  every  species,"  "Messengers  and 
Stoke  Pogises  in  every  breed"  and  that  records  of  ac- 
tual performance  help  not  only  to  find  the  individuals 
with  such  marvelous*  breed-forming  powers,   but  are 
useful  in  aiding  the  best  of  the  breed  to  become  the 
whole  of  the  future  breed.     These  records  further  re- 
call the  fact  that  our  excellent  breeds  of  live  stock  are 


Mower    County  Beef  Shorthorns.  109 

still  sadly  in  the  minority  as  compared  with  scrub  stock, 
and  they  suggest  better  breeding  and  accumulated 
proofs  of  merit  as  a  means  of  inducing  more  farmers 
to  use  pedigreed  blood. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

BREEDING  SPECIAL  PURPOSE  CATTLE. 

The  breeders  of  special-purpose  dairy  cattle  are  an 
energetic  and  persistent  class.  They  have  long  and 
aggressively  contended  that  specialization  in  cattle  is 
not  only  highly  important  but  that  it  is  the  only  true 
philosophy.  The  large  annual  net  returns  from  certain 
dairy  cows  in  experiment  station  tests  and  in  private 
trials  have  been  used  as  a  powerful  argument  against 
trying  to  unite  beef  quality  with  high  dairy  ability  in 
breeds  of  dairy  cattle.  The  theory  that  the  breeder  of 
dairy  cattle  should  actually  get  rid  of  beefiness  has  few 
opponents.  The  advocates  of  this  theory  have  done 
much  to  bring  about  a  very  useful  change  in  the  show 
judging  of  dairy  classes. 

The  experiments  by  Prof.  Haecker  of  the  Minne- 
sota Experiment  Station  have  brought  out  clearly  the 
general  physiological  proposition  that  large  abdomen, 
good  udder,  spareness  of  meat  and  rather  light  weight 
of  frame,  together  with  vigor,  are  the  combination  of 
form  which  generally  goes  with  the  hereditary  efficien- 
cy in  giving  the  largest  returns  in  value  of  dairy  prod- 
ucts above  cost  of.  food.  As  the  years  go  on  these 
general  physiological  characters  become  more  and  more 
emphasized,  while  such  characters  as  slope  of  ribs, 
form  of  head,  size  and  number  of  milk  wells,  escutch- 
eon and  length  of  tail  are  being  relegated  to  the  minor 
places  they  should  occupy  in  the  dairy  cow  score  card, 
or  are  left  out  altogether.  Prof.  Haecker  and  other 
experimenters,  who  have  made  the  best  dairy  cows 
stand  out  so  very  prominently  as  individual  producers 
of  values,  have  done  no  end  of  good  to  the  beef  and 
dual-purpose  types  of  cattle,  as  well  as  to  dairy  cattle. 
Bv  inaugurating  statistical  methods  of  comparing  the 


Breeding  Special  Purpose  Cattle.  1 1 1 

net  cost .  of  one  physiological  type  with  another  they 
have  set  in  motion  statistical  methods  in  cattle  breeding. 
These  men  have  not  as  yet  realized  the  great  importance 
of  this  phase  of  their  work  because  they  were  studying 
problems  concerning  the  cost  of  production  with  cows 
bred  as  they  found  them.  In  their  zeal  to  study  feeding 
problems  they  have  overlooked  the  very  much  larger 
relation  of  their  work  to  cattle  breeding.  They  have 
aroused  the  breeders  of  beef  cattle  to  an  effort  to  devise 
statistical  methods  of  studying  questions  concerning 
beef  production  from  birth  to  maturity.  Ways  should 
now  be  devised  of  comparing  the  dairy  herd  as  a  unit 
with  the  beef  herd  as  a  unit  in  the  general  economy 
of  the  farm  and  of  breeding  the  kind  of  cow  best  for 
each  agricultural  region  and  each  farm,  whether  that 
be  a  dairy  type,  a  beef  type  or  a  beef-dairy  type. 

The  net  profit  from  the  mature  cow  in  her  individ- 
ual capacity  has  been  set  forward  as  the  prominent 
fact,  whereas  the  net  profit  of  the  herd  as  a  whole  is, 
in  the  last  analysis,  where  the  farmer's  interest  lies.  So 
far  as  I  know  there  is  no  adequate  data  showing  the 
relative  profits  of  herds  of  the  three  classes  of  cattle. 
Presumably  the  dairy  herd,  as  a  general  rule,  brings  in 
more  net  cash  than  the  beef  herd  because  people  are  less 
willing  to  do  the  more  exacting  work  of  the  dairy,  and 
as  a  consequence  there  is  less  competition.  General- 
purpose  types  of  cattle  have  not  been  so  well  developed 
for  their  dual  office  as  the  other  two  classes,  and  there 
is  no  very  good  basis  of  comparing  a  herd  of  them  with 
a  herd  of  either  of  the  specialized  classes. 

A  friend  of  beef  cattle  says :  ''General-purpose 
cattle  suit  a  general-purpose  man.  Such  a  man  will 
take  poor  care  of  cattle  and  highly  specialized  cattle 
must  have  good  treatment.  By  combining  dairy  and 
beef  qualities  more  than  half  of  excellence  cannot  be 
secured  in  either  line  of  production,  and  half  of  ex- 
cellence is  far  below  the  point  of  profit." 

The  breeder  of  dual-purpose  cattle  retorts :     'Tt  is 


112  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

easy  to  secure  more  than  three- fourths  of  great  ex^ 
cellence  both  in  beef  and  in  dairy  qualities  in  the  com- 
bined animals.  Two  times  three-fourths  is  one  and 
one-half,  making  the  combined  type  more  valuable  than 
either  of  the  specialized  types." 

A  case  in  part  parallel  will  illustrate  one  phase  of 
this  discussion.  In  Southeastern  Minnesota  many 
farmers  grow  two  crops  of  seeds  at  the  same  time 
on  some  fields.  They  sow  two-thirds  of  a  full  quan- 
tity each  of  the  spring  wheat  and  of  flax.  The  com- 
bined crop  often  produces  more  value  per  acre  than 
either  crop  would  alone.  The  two  kinds  of  seeds  are 
very  cheaply  separated  by  the  local  grain  elevator,  and 
the  farmers  receive  current  prices  for  each  grain.  In 
some  cases,  where  the  land  is  weedy,  it  is  impracticable 
to  grow  flax  alone.  Wheat  sown  with  the  flax  crowds 
the  weeds  down,  really  taking  the  place  otherwise 
occupied  by  weeds,  and  the  combined  crop  in  years 
when  the  price  of  flax  is  high  sometimes  sells  for  al- 
most 50  per  cent  more  than  would  either  crop  alone. 
It  is  often  the  "general  farmer's"  crop. 

It  is  narrow  to  argue  that  the  law  of  specializa- 
tion is  always  wisest  in  cattle,  in  crops  or  in  the  edu- 
cation of  men.  We  need  men  of  general  training  as 
well  as  specialists.  We  must  not  hold  our  Jersey  cow 
nor  our  Christmas  show  steer  so  close  to  our  eyes 
that  we  cannot  see  the  relation  of  the  herd  to  the  entire 
farm  management  problem,  with  its  annual  balance 
sheet. 

Experimentation  and  statistical  investigation  of  the 
broadest  and  most  thorough-going  kind  will  most  like- 
ly prove  that  there  is  room  not  only  for  special-pur- 
pose cattle  of  the  two  kinds  but  for  dual-purpose  cat- 
tle as  well.  All  men  are  not  high-grade  dairymen  and 
cannot  make  money  out  of  the  highly  constituted  dairy 
cow.  And  broadly  conceived  and  long-continued  breed- 
ing experiments,  the  writer  predicts,  cannot  fail  so  to 
combine  milk  and  meat  production  in  the  same  breed 
and  for  the  ordinarv  farmer  that  it  will  serve  to  make 


Breeding  Special  Purpose  Cattle.  113 

his  farm  pay  as  well  as,  or  even  better  than  the  special 
dairy  or  the  special  beef  classes.  If  we  had  such 
dual-purpose  types,  bred  pure  and  to  a  high  uniform 
standard  of  dual  excellence,  there  would  be  a  large 
field  for  each  of  the  three  classes.  Beef  cattle  would 
hold  the  ranges  and  many  beef  farms,  general  agri- 
cultural' regions  would  find  a  dual-purpose  breed  of 
real  merit  the  most  profitable,  and  dairymen  would 
properly  retain  special  dairy  breeds.  In  fact,  the  beef 
types  more  than  the  dairy  types  would  suffer  by  the 
competition  of  dual-purpose  cattle. 

Farms  and  ranches  for  breeding  beef  bulls  will 
be  a  necessity  in  the  agricultural  regions.  They  will 
have  three  classes  of  markets,  viz :  beef  ranches,  farms 
devoted  to  beef  raising  and  farmers  using  dual-purpose 
cattle,  but  not  needing  all  their  females  for  the  dairy. 
These  latter  and  even  growers  of  dairy  cattle,  will 
desire  to  breed  their  less  valuable  cows  to  beef  sirejs 
so  as  to  have  good  steers  and  heifers  for  beefing. 

On  those  farms  where  milk  for  city  or  for  factory 
or  home  manufacture  can  be  the  chief  product  the 
specially-bred  dairy  cow  will  doubtless  hold  the  fort. 
The  amount  of  territory  she  will  give  up  to  dual-pur- 
pose dairy  cows  will  depend  upon  the  relative  amount 
of  brains  and  care  put  into  breeding  the  two  classes  of 
cattle.  It  is  easier  to  breed  dairy  cows,  but  the  pos- 
sibilities in  breeding  dual-purpose  cattle,  once  properly 
developed,  may  prove  so  great  that  dairy  cattle,  even 
under  the  very  intelligent  breeding  which  is  already 
coming  in  vogue  with  this  class  of  cattle,  may  be 
crowded  to  a  minor  place.  Their  merits  are  now  sa 
great  that  they  should  help  to  crowd  out  scrub  cattle. 
People  often  cling  to  the  cow  that  produces  steers  as 
well  as  milk  when  they  ought  not  to  do  so;  but  the 
likes  of  people  will  continue  to  be  a  part  of  the  problem. 

The  general-purpose  cow  as  a  pure-bred  type  has 
her  way  largely  to  make.  Red  Polls,  Devons,  Milking 
Short-horns  and  other  breeds  have  not  as  yet  received 
adequate  attention ;   they  have  not   been  bred   in   that 


J 14  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

comprehensive  way  that  their  importance  demands.  At 
between  beefy  types  and  types  stronger  in  milk  within 
the  same  breed,  and  many  breeders  are  offering  two 
families  of  the  same  breed,  one  with  more  beef  and 
the  other  with  more  dairy  quality.  They  sell  the  pret- 
tier beefy  types  the  most  readily,  but  they  say  con- 
fidently that  those  having  more  dairy  quality"  are  the 
more  profitable  individual  cows  for  the  farmer.  They 
have  not  more  than  entered  upon  comprehensively  and 
thoroughly  breeding  the  two  types  in  these  breeds. 
The  small  ring  representing  this  important  class  at 
the  International  shows  in  1902  and  1903  illustrates  the 
fact  that  breeding  the  "farmer's  cow,''  or  the  "gen- 
eral" or  ''dual-purpose  cow,"  is  in  a  backward  state. 
This  backwardness  arises  largely  from  the  difficulties 
encountered.  But  the  tabulated  figures  presented  by 
at  least  one  of  the  breeders  exhibiting  a  cow^  in  1902 
shows  that  the  entering  wedge  is  in  place. 

The  still  larger  class  at  the  St.  Louis  Exposition 
in  1904  shows  that  interest  is  rising  in  cattle  which 
combine  beef  and  dairy  production. 

Statistical  methods  have  been  invoked  to  show  the 
value  of  these  meaty  types  which  can  make  money 
both  at  the  pail  and  in  the  feed-yard.  Records  of  an- 
nual yields  and  of  net  values  in  dairy  cattle  are  the 
powerful  levers  which  wnll  hold  special  dairy  cattle 
in  public  favor.  The  more  comfortable  work  of  beef 
production  will  hold  up  the  special  beef  classes.  Dual- 
purpose  animals  to  gain  a  large  field  must  make  the 
farm  pay  with  less  milking  than  is  required  in  dairy 
cattle,  and  produce  nearly  as  good  steers  as  do  the  beef 
types,  and  both  of  these  classes  of  facts  must  find  a 
prominent  place  in  our  dual-purpose  performance  pedi- 
gree records. 

So  long  as  there  are  superior  individual  grade  and 
pure-bred  cow^s  which  will  give  a  large  annual  dairy 
product,  using  only  a  moderate  supply  of  food,  and 
will  {irodnce  superior  steers,  there  will  remain  in  the 


Breeding  Special  Purpose  Cattle.  115 

best  their  blood  is  usually  made  up  of  zigzag  crosses 
minds  of  practical  men  the  hope  that  the  dual  or  gen- 
eral-purpose pure-bred  type  is  a  possibility  in  a  dis- 
tinct breed  or  breeds.  If  this  hope  can.  be  realized  by 
the  production  of  cattle  that  will  pay  better  than  the 
specifically  developed  beef  and  dairy  types  the  world 
will  be  blessed. 

I  have  yet  to  hear  anyone  deny  the  commonly-made 
statement  that  there  is  occasionally  an  individual  cow 
among  common  and  Short-horn  cattle  which  success- 
fully combines  large  dairy  value  with  large  value  as 
a  dam  of  steers.  Extreme  advocates  of  the  special 
types  urge  that,  while  this  may  be  true,  breeding  to 
the  two  purposes  brings  opposite  physiological  forces 
into  antagonism  and  we  cannot  breed  that  constancy 
of  heredity  required  in  pure-breds.  Breeders  of  beef 
cattle,  though  they  are  devoted  to  the  highly  specialized 
beef  type,  are  not  usually  so  insistent  as  breeders  of 
dairy  cattle  that  there  can  be  no  middle  class.  The 
statement  commonly  made  that  milk  and  beef  are  such 
opposites  physiologically  that  they  are  antagXDnistic  is 
not  on  a  very  firm  experimental  foundation.  That  good 
milking  capacity  when  in  milk  and  good  beefing  ca- 
pacity in  the  feed-lot  are  successfully  combined  in  cer- 
tain individuals  is  to  me  absolute  proo'f  that  this  ques- 
tion is  at  least  worthy  of  investigation  before  any  defi- 
nite laws  are  laid  down  for  practice. 

Certainly  not  only  those  who  are  always  hunting 
for  the  impossible  in  combined  excellence,  but  many 
of  our  most  substantial  farmers  and  breeders  believe 
in  the  animal  which  combines  good  beef  and  good 
dairy  qualities.  Not  a  few  who  set  themselves  up  as 
teachers  insist  that  dual-purpose  cattle  have  usually 
appeared  in  a  very  weak  position  because  of  their  hav- 
ing no  acceptable  plan  for  breeding  cattle  of  this  class. 
Some  of  these  plans  are  too  weak  to  need  opposition, 
even  though  they  may  have  emanated  from  sources 
to  which  people  are  inclined  to  look  for  better  things. 

Breedino'  bulls  of  high  beef  type  on  cows  of  high 


ii6  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

dairy  type  results  in  the  opposite  of  uniformity,  with 
an  average  dual  efficiency  too  often  far  below  the  point 
of  profit.  Radical  hybridizing  is  practical  in  extensive 
long-continued  scientific  operations  in  experiments  in 
breed  or  variety  formation,  but  not  usually  in  the  prac- 
tical breeding  for  immediate  production,  which  plant 
breeders  will  call  breed  growing,  though  there  are  ex- 
ceptions, as  in  the  case  of  breeding  mutton  rams  from 
the  lowlands  on  the  hardy  upland  ewes  of  Scotland. 

"Buying  good  milkers  of  mixed  breeding  and 
breeding  on  them  bulls  of  the  beef  type  to  pro- 
duce steers"  may  be  a  good  policy  for  the  occa- 
sional dairy  farmer  who  is  a  shrewd  buyer,  but  as  it 
requires  that  the  producers  of  these  cows  shall  have 
bred  large  numbers  of  unprofitable  ones  to  secure  the 
occasional  one  suited  to  the  needs  of  the  shrewd  dairy- 
man, it  is  poor  general  or  public  policy.  It  is  hard  on 
the  other  fellow.  The  entire  problem  rests  on  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  a  practicable  plan  to  produce  dual- 
purpose  pure-bred  cattle  can  be  devised  and  not  on 
whether  they  are  desired  or  needed  on  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  farms.  By  what  method  can  milking 
Short-horns,  Red  Polls,  Devons  or  common  cattle  be 
so  improved  that  they  will  fill  the  want  ?  Or  can  a  plan 
be  devised  under  which  we  can  form  new  breeds  of  the 
desired  type  by  hybridfzing  existing  kinds  ? 

Possibly  the  best  basis  for  forming  a  new  breed  of 
this  kind  can  be  found  among  our  common  cattle. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

BREEDING  DUAL-PURPOSE  CATTLE. 

To  define  more  definitely  the  problem  under  dis- 
cussion, cattle  may  be  divided  into  five  classes :  i . 
Specialized  dairy  types.  2.  Dairy  types  into  which 
there  has  been  engrafted  or  left  some  tendency  to  beef 
quality.  3.  Dual-purpose  cattle  in  which  the  stress 
is  laid  equally  on  dairy  and  on  beef  qualities.  4.  Beet 
types  into  which  have  been  engrafted,  or  left,  some  ten- 
dency to  dairy  quality.     5.     Specialized  beef  types. 

Few  will  argue  for  the  second  class.  No  one  has 
the  hardihood  to  advertise  beefy  Jerseys.  Years  ago 
Holstein  breeders  catered,  to  beef,  but  the  breed  has 
since  been  vastly  improved.  The  beefy  ones  were 
usually  such  poor  milkers  and  were  so  tabooed  by 
butchers. 

In  part  without  warrant  except  to  get  an  advantage 
in  the  price  paid,  that  they  became  very  unpopular  and 
only  the  best  performers  at  the  pail  have  been  retained 
and  now  these  latter  dominate  the  blood  of  the  breed 
in  America.  Sometimes  great  adversity  which  wipes 
out  all  but  the  best  causes  a  radical  improvement  in 
the  breed  and  here  the  dairy  type  has  been  much  im- 
proved. It  should  be  explained  that  the  word  ''type" 
is  not  used  in  these  articles  in  its  narrow  sense  to  mean 
mere  form  and  outward  appearance,  but  in  its  broad 
sense,  including  not  only  form  but  ability  to  perform', 
to  live  long,  to  multiply  and  to  yield  net  profits  per 
herd.  Adversity  developes  character  in  breeds  as  in 
men.  A  "fashion  frost''  removed  all  the  roan  beef 
Short-horns  but  the  best,  and  now  they  average  better 
than  the  popular  reds. 

If  fashion  now  turns  to  roans,  the  reds  will  be 
benefited  by  the  retention  of  only  the  best.     The  kind 


ii8  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

of  popularity  which  causes  every  animal  of  a  certain 
color  to  be  bred  causes  retrogression.  Domesticated 
animals  are  an  abnormal  product.  Breed  from  the 
average  and  they  will  deteriorate  through  the  opera- 
tion of  atavism.  Breeding  from  the  abnormally  good 
is  necessary  to  retain  present  excellence  and  to  improve 
it. 

The  third  class  is  the  one  mainly  in  dispute.  If  we 
can  breed  dual-purpose  sheep,  the  Shropshire  or  Ram- 
bouillets  for  example,  why  not  dual-purpose  cattle? 
And  if  argument  is  made  that  wool  and  mutton  pro- 
duction are  not  so  physiologically  antagonistic  as  dairy 
and  beef  production  we  have  the  general-purpose  hens. 
The  Plymouth  Rock,  Wyandotte,  Rhode  Island  Reds 
and  other  breeds,  or  at  least  families  of  these  breeds, 
successfully  unite  tgg  and  meat-production,  presum- 
ably in  a  way  that  makes  the  flock  more  valuable  to 
the  farmer  than  the  special-purpose  egg  breeds  or  the 
special-purpose  meat  breeds. 

Many  things  in  breeding  commonly  regarded  as  im- 
possible are  merely  difficult.  Nature  has  evolved  men 
for  one  class  of  work  and  women  for  another.  Even 
in  our  cattle  the  males  of  every  breed  are  powerfully 
masculine,  while  the  other  sex  are  mild-mannered  and 
feminine,  thus  resulting  in  sex  duality  withiq  the  type. 
All  through  the  animal  kingdom  we  find  examples 
which  make  it  look  quite  possible  to  breed  cattle  of 
high  dairy  efficiency  when  in  milk  and  very  good  beef- 
ers  in  the  feed-yard  and  at  the  block.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  w^e  cannot  secure  highest  excellence  in  each 
quality  in  the  combined  animal^  but  this  is  not  an  ad- 
mission that  the  combined  value  does  not  equal  or  ex- 
ceed the  single  value  of  either  of  the  special -purpose 
types. 

Breeders  of  beef  cattle  may  have  been  inclined  to 
lie  down  because  special  dairy  breeders  have  held  up 
their  large  records  and  said  they  were  outdone.  Pos- 
sibly dairy  cow  statistics  have  needlessly  paralyzed  the 


Breeding  Dual-Pnrpose  Cattle.  119 

breeders  of  milking  Short-horns  and  of  other  dual-pur- 
pose cattle.  And  it  is  not  to  the  credit  of  the  vast  in- 
terests invested  in  dual-purpose  cattle  that  this  argu- 
ment must  be  based  on  generalities  gathered  outside 
the  breeds  which  combine  beef  and  milk. 

The  devotees  of  classes  3,  4  and  5  will  soon  awake 
under  the  lash  being  applied  by  the  dairy  experimenters 
and  breeders  and  we  shall  have  performance  records 
of  herds.  Records  showing  beef  products,  dairy  pro- 
ducts and  net  results  from  the  best  herds  of  milking 
Short-horns  would  set  the  dairy  experts  at  a  new  task. 
They  migjit  find  themselves  on  the  defensive.  In  the 
meantime  it  is  due  that  we  take  off  our  hats  to  the  dairy 
breeders  and  congratulate  them  on  the  fact  that  their 
best  dairy  herds  are  making  them  better  profits,  and 
theirs  is  the  stock  we  should  be  wise  enough  to  use  in 
dairy  production,  at  least  until  dual-purpose  cattle  are 
bred  up. 

The  dual-purpose  cattle  problem  is  of  the  future. 
Only  a  beginning  has  been  made.  The  next  step  must 
be  statistical  methods  of  breeding  or  the  special-pur- 
pose dairy  cow  will  continue  to  dominate  dairy  produc- 
tion and  the  beautiful  beef  animal  will  dominate  in  meat 
production.  And  the  em.phasis  need  not  be  especially 
on  dual-purpose  breeding.  It  should  be  alike  on  breed- 
ing all  three  classes.  The  magnificent  results  attained 
in  breeding  dairy  cattle  and  beef  cattle  should  be  push- 
ed forward  with  far  greater  vigor  that  as  many  as  pos- 
sible may  have  the  better  blood  to  use,  and  that  each 
class  of  cattle  may  set  higher  standards  of  farm  profits 
for  each  other  class  to  rise  toward'  in  competition.  Sys- 
tematic, statistical  dual-purpose  breeding  is  nearly  a 
virgin  field,  and  on  that  account  may  be  open  to  more 
w^onderful  opportunities  than  breeding  the  special 
classes.     Who  knows? 

The  problem  of  the  formation  of  new  breeds  lies  in 
the  method.  Present  methods  have  carried  us,  farther 
and  farther  away  from  pure-bred  du^l-purpose  types 


Breeding  Plants  and  Animals,  120 

of  Short-horns,  while  the  Red  Polls  and  other  general- 
purpose  breeds  have  been  ground  between  the  upper 
and  nether  millstones  till  most  of  their  devotees  do  not 
know  where  they  are  "at."  Associations  or  very  large 
firms  have  an  opportunity  to  build  up  county  families 
or  breeds  of  milking  Short-horns  or  of  Red  Polls,  and 
their  field  for  sales  is  practically  without  limit  for  stock 
which  has  the  suitable  form  and  the  backing  of  per- 
formance faithfully  and  authentically  recorded  in  sta- 
tistical pedigrees.  Plans  such  as  have  been  outlined 
above  but  combining  records  of  both  beef  and  dairy 
qualities  could,  I  believe^  be  worked  out  and  put  into 
operation  in  al!  these  general  breeds  by  co-operative 
associations.  A  resident  of  Grant  Co.,  Minn.,  who  has 
means  and  public  spirit  has  expressed  the  firm  belief 
that  it  would  be  quite  practicable  to  inaugurate  a  co- 
operative enterprise  in  breeding  milking  Short-horns 
in  his  county. 

Since  this  article  is  designed  mainly  to  arouse  stu- 
dents and  breeders  of  milking  Short-horns  from  a  Rip 
Van  Winkle  slumber  of  nearly  a  half  century  to  take 
up  anew  the  study  of  the  philosophy  of  breeding  these 
all-round  good  cattle,  it  is  thought  that  to  take  up  a 
specific  problem  will  be  an  aid.  The  assumption  is 
that  25  farmers  in  Grant  Co.,  Minn.,  would  enter  into 
a  co-operative  breeders'  association  and  that  they  would 
each  purchase  an  average  of  10  cows  and  a  bull  to  start 
with.  The  Short-horn  breeder  whom  I  regard  as  best 
qualified  to  pick  up  foundation  stock  for  such  an  en- 
terprise recently  said  that  $200  per  animal  would  be 
ample  to  collect  the  most  promising  cows  for  such  pur- 
pose, cows  which  are  known  to  be  good  milkers  and 
not  too  weak  on  the  beef  side.  A  bull  for  each  mem- 
ber of  the  association  would  cost  more,  and  $500  each 
would  be  none  too  much  to  secure  the  best  available 
bulls.  Investigations  would  probably  show  the  wis- 
dom of  securing  part  of  these  bulls  from  England  or 
even  from  Australia,  where,  it  is  believed,  there  are 
stronger  milking  families  of  Short-horns  than  in  Amer- 


Breeding  Dual-Purpose  Cattle.  121 

ica.  This  would  make  the  expense  for  each  farmer 
$2,500,  or  a  fourth  more  than  some  of  these  men,  no 
doubt,  have  invested  in  a  draft  stallion.  As  the  years 
pass  by  and  the  poorer  cows  and  bulls  are  discarded 
and  as  means  accrue  from  the  sale  of  young  stock  other 
purchases  of  males  and  females  should  be  made.  I'he 
final  object  is  to  secure  the  blood  of  those  few  Short- 
horns throughout  the  world  which  have  the  highest 
efficiency  as  dual-purpose  breeders,  then  discarding  all 
filse,  make  of  this  blood  the  future  breed  of  Grant 
County  Milking  Short-horns. 

The  policy  after  the  first  few  years  should  be  to 
introduce  other  blood  into  the  new  blood  lines  only 
after  it  has  been  tried  in  combination  with  some  of 
the  less  valuable  members  of  the  county  breed  or  sub- 
breed.  Carefully-kept  records  would  show  how  the 
various  breed  roots  selected  as  best  would  niche  to- 
gether in  producing  progeny. 

While  incestuous  breeding  has  dangers,  the  limita- 
tions of  which  have  not  been  clearly  worked  out  for 
the  bovine  species,  three  bulls  and  six  cows  chosen  as 
the  best  from  among  the  whole  lot  selected  in  the  coun- 
ty association  could  be  so  inter-crossed  that  no  trouble 
could  arise  from  too  close  breeding,  and  yet  give  range 
for  avoiding  unhappy  blending. 

It  is  not  probable,  however,  that  so  few  basic  in- 
dividuals would  finally  be  chosen.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  single  very  remarkable  sire,  or  dam,  might  be  found 
with  blood  so  excelling  both  in  projected  efficiency  and 
in  the  ability  to  endure  in  and  in  breeding  that  its 
blood  should  be  concentrated  with  comparatively  littlt^ 
admixture  and  adulteration  of  less  valuable  blood.  The 
necessary  inbreeding  would  possibly  help  to  intensify 
the  prepotency  of  the  new  blood,  so  as  to  make  it  more 
effective  when  bred  to  outside  registered  or  to  grade 
herds.  Not  only  the  good  or  bad  effects  of  this  line 
of  breeding  could  be  made  a  matter  of  statistical  rec- 
ord but  the  prepotency  of  the  blood  lines  thus  com- 
pounded when  the  bulls  were  used  on  the  general  stock 


122  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

of  Short-horns  could  be  measured  and  recorded- 
Breeding"  power  within  the  family  and  prepotency 
when  outcrossed  on  other  families  of  the  Sreed  may 
not  always  be  the  same.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  better 
breeding,  better  methods  of  recording  values,  and  sales 
based  on  statistics,  will  some  day  greatly  increase  ti.e 
use  of  pure-bred  cattle,  thus  lessening  up-grading, 
which  is  a  mere  pioneer  necessity  and  which  too  often 
means  the  mixing  of  the  adulterated  blood  of  one  breed 
with  the  pure  blood  of  another;  in  other  words,  con- 
stantly hybridizing,  which,  except  in  certain  cases,  does 
not  pay  as  well  as  breeding  pure-breds  known  to  give 
uniformly  good  results.  Only  by  means  of  pure  breed- 
ing can  there  be  attained  a  uniformly  high  average  of 
efficiency  of  breeding  stock  and  of  individual  excel- 
lence in  practical  herds  on  our  farms. 

The  value  of  the  crossing  reasonably  nearly  related 
families  needs  investigation.  The  present  thought  may 
be  too  much  in  its  favor.  It  may  be  a  help  vi  case  of 
some  families  and  an  injury  in  case  of  others. 

The  Short-horn  breed  offers  a  large  market  for 
heads  of  herds  and  for  foundation  females  to  start  or 
improve  herds,  and  many  animals  highly  bred  in  dual 
excellence  could  be  sold  at  high  prices  for  these  pur- 
poses. The  other  dual-purpose  breeds  would  offer  a 
more  restricted  m.arket  because  there  are  not  so  many 
engaged  in  producing  pure-bred  stock  of  the  other 
classes  of  cattle.  Such  an  association  could  make 
money  selling  bulls  and  females  to  farmers  but  the  best 
profits  would  come  from  bulls  sold  to  breeders  who  in 
turn  supply  bulls  to  farmers.  It  is  also  true  that  Red 
Polls,  backed  by  accredited  figures  of  butter  produc- 
tion, beefing  quality,  fecundity  and  disease  resistance, 
might  easily  be  made  so  popular  that  men  would  pay 
large  prices  for  foundation  females  with  which  to  start 
new  herds,  as  well  as  for  male  stock. 

In  co-operative  breeding  of  dual-purpose  cattle 
methods  of  organization,  dividing  the  expenses  and 
profits,  retaining  the  choicest  animals  within  the  county 


Breeding  Dual-Pur  pose  Cattle.  123 

or  association  and  other  general  business  matters  could 
be  arranged  much  as  suggested  in  connection  with 
breeding  beef  cattle,  and  dairy  cattle.  The  standards  of 
excellence  and  the  methods  of  recording  values  would 
be  more  complicated  and  even  more  dififi'cult. 

No  doubt  it  will  require  a  longer  time,  more  ex- 
pense, and  most  difficult  of  all,  more  patient  waiting 
on  the  part  of  the  members  of  the  association,  to  breed 
dual-purpose  cattle  than  to  breed  either  of  the  two 
special  classes.  But  the  possible  outcome  is  larger, 
and  I  believe  that  only  a  few  years  would  so  reveal 
the  large  possibilities  that  those  in  the  co-operative  en- 
terprises would  become  enthusiastic.  Of  course  the 
personal  equation  is  here,  as  in  most  experiments,  a 
very  important  factor.  Much  would  depend  on  the 
leading  spirits  and  on  those  responsible  for  directing 
and  performing  the  details  of  purchasing  foundation 
stocks,  feeding,  testing,  tabulating,  and  interpreting  the 
resuils,  and  in  their  use  in  mating  animals. 

Breeding  cannot  be  all  reduced  to  cold  formal  sta- 
tistics. Personal  experience,  judgment  and  even  intui- 
tion must  always  be  recognized  as  playing  very  im- 
portant parts  in  the  selection  of  foundation  animals. 
Some  plant  breeders  have  developed  to  a  marked  de- 
gree intuitive  faculties  of  selecting  useful  forms,  oft- 
times  selecting  intelligently  long  before  the  desired 
flowers  or  fruits  are  developed.  And  our  best  animal 
breeders  claim  that  they  possess  intuitive  abilities  which 
they  cannot  express  in  language.  A  prominent  Here- 
ford breeder  recently  said  he  could  often  discern  that 
a  certain  young  bull  would  be  a  remarkable  breeder, 
yet  he  could  not  express  to  another  the  basis  for  that 
belief,  and  T  am  ready  to  believe  that  he  is  correct. 
Life  is  too  subtle  to  be  wholly  subject  to  the  measur- 
ing rule  or  the  weighing  scales. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

BREEDING  SWINE, 

The  history  of  breeding  Poland-China  hogs  in  the 
com  and  clover  belt  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  \s  an 
open  book  full  of  interesting  philosophy.  It  illustrates 
the  rapidity  with  which  changes  of  vast  economic  im- 
portance may  be  brought  about  by  animal  breeding; 
it  also  illustrates  how  an  entire  generation  of  bright 
men  may  pursue  a  policy  which  is  on  the  whole  some- 
what narrow  and  may  be  misled  by  mere  artistic  ap- 
pearances. A  proper  interpretation  of  some  of  the  lead- 
ing factors  operating  to  modify  our  breeds  of  animals 
for  better  or  for  worse  can  best  be  set  forth  by  illus- 
trations from  the  porcine  family.  Owing  to  several 
facts,  hogs  are  our  best  farm  animals  with  which  to 
do  some  of  the  many  needed  breeding  experiments. 
They  have  large  litters  of  young  and  a  new  genera- 
tion can  be  produced  every  year,  because  the  female 
at  a  year  old  will  produce  a  litter  and  annually  or  cften- 
er  thereafter.  They  are  docile  and  intelligent,  easily 
managed  in  feeding  experiments,  generally  free  from 
disease  (except  cholera),  and  there  is  such  a  variety  of 
domestic  and  wild  forms  that  relationships  may  be  se- 
cured for  mating  near  relatives  or  for  hybridizing  dis- 
tinct forms.  They  are  profitable  animals  and  the  ex- 
perimenter can  raise  them  in  large  numbers  with  re- 
muneration, thus  basing  facts  upon  averages  secured 
from  large  numbers. 

But  the  above  digression  is  only  anticipating  sug- 
gestions for  breeding  experiments  to  be  ofifered  in  a 
future  article.  The  present  purpose  will  be  served  by 
a  brief  review  of  certain  historical  facts  in  the  breed- 
ing of  Poland-China  hogs.  This  breed  was  formed  by 
hybridizing  several  fairly  well  established  types  of  hogs 


Breeding  Swine.  125 

brought  together  in  the  Miami  VaUev  in  Ohio  in  the 
middle  of  the  last  century.  It  is  said,  by  the  way,  that 
one  sire,  purchased  from  a  Polander,  was  a  veritable 
''Messenger"  as  the  parent  of  this  breed.  He  seems  to 
have  been  that  one  in  many  thousands  the  blood  of 
which  when  multiplied  makes  the  better  variety  or  bet- 
ter breed.  In  color  these  types  carried  little  but  black 
.^nd  white.  There  was  brought  into  the  mixture  the 
blood  of  large  white  hogs,  of  coarse  black  hogs  and 
doubtless  fhe  blood  of  small  black  hogs  of  the  Eastern 
continent.  The  sturdy  Ohio  breeders  used  at  first 
mainly  the  larger  constituent  elements  in  irnking  up 
the  loland-China  breed  of  a  third  of  a  century  ago. 
But  the  atavic  elements  of  the  early  maturing  small 
hogs  remained  in  the  blood  of  this  hybrid  breed.  At- 
tenuated by  not  being  allowed  to  dominate  for  genera- 
tions these  recessive  characters  only  awaited  a  chance 
to  become  active  participants  in  the  general  blood  mix- 
ture. In  fact,  even  in  the  earlier  decades  of  this  breed 
an  occasional  ''chunk"  was  but  a  sudden  assertion  of 
the  inherent  force  of  the  latent  blood  of  these  more 
or  less  remote  blocky  ancestors. 

A  certain  general  type  early  became  dominant,  be- 
cause the  breeders  formed  an  ideal  toward  which  they 
bred.  All  who  can  remember  a  third  of  a  century  back 
can  recall  the  old  type  of  this  most  famous  breed  of 
hogs  that  ever  lived;  size  rather  large;  body  long, 
tending  rather  to  coarseness  as  shown  in  the  large  leg 
bones  and  feet;  hair  abundant,  curly,  alternating  white 
and  black  areas ;  ears  large  and  pendant ;  vigorous  of 
constitution;  rather  quiet  and  sluggish  of  disposition; 
bearing  large  litters  with  little  trouble  at  farrowing, 
and  generally  good  milkers.  The  average  of  the  breed 
was  probably  of  greater  value  then  than  the  avercge 
Poland-China  of  today.  This  is  a  terrible  indictment 
of  the  hog-breeding  fraternity,  but  it  is  a  fact  more 
or  less  clearly  sensed  by  the  leading  philosophers 
among  the  breeders  of  the  present  time.  In  many  re- 
spects the  present  breed  is  an  improvement,  but  may 


1^6  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

be  likened  to  the  Irishman's  fence.  He  was  building 
feiices  for  his  employer.  At  dinner  a  discussion  arose 
as  to  one's  duty  to  join  the  church.  The  farmer  con- 
tended that  though  he  was  not  a  church  member  he 
expected  to  go  to  heaven.  He  said  he  was  willing  to 
be  compared  with  the  average  church  member.  He 
enumerated  such  good  qualities  as  paying  his  debts, 
giving  a  helping  hand  in  times  of  need  and  so  forth, 
3'et  frankly  admitting  that  he  had  faults  declared  that 
he  would  average  up  all  right.  At  supper  the  farmer 
asked  the  Irishman  how  the  fence  building  was  pro- 
gressing. ''Sure/'  was  the  reply,  '1  am  setting  the 
posts  well  and  the  boards  are  nailed  on  to  stay.  There 
may  be  a  gap  of  several  feet  here  and  there,  but  the 
fence  will  average  up  wath  other  good  fences  which 
keep  out  the  cattle." 

Improvements  have  been  made  by  refining  the  ani- 
mals, somew^hat  shortening  the  body,  reducing  the  size, 
bringing  about  earlier  maturity  and  developing  tho 
rectangular  and  pretty  lard  form ;  the  hair  has  lost  its 
curl,  has  been  made  finer  and  the  white  spots  have  been 
nearly  all  eliminated;  the  ears  have  been  short- 
ened and  turned  up  nearly  like  those  of  a  pert 
Berkshire;  the  quiet  disposition  and  good  feeding 
qualities  have  been  retained  and  the  lard  padding  so 
long  bred  into  the  fiber  of  the  breed  is  possibly  attend- 
ed with  less  vigor  of  constitution;  the  milk-giving  ten- 
dencies may  have  been  reduced,  but  worst  of  all  the 
fecundity  has  evidently  been  reduced  in  some  families. 
The  loss  in  fecundity  and  vigor,  and  presumably  a  loss 
in  the  percentage  of  lean  meat  on  the  carcass,  are  gaps 
left  in  the  fence.  The  largest  improvement,  no  doubt, 
comes  in  the  smaller  amount  of  food  required  tO'  pro- 
duce a  pound  of  gain,  avoiding  the  more  expensive  feed- 
ing later  in  the  life  of  the  hog.  These  gaps  allow  such 
ungainly  "critters"  as  some  of  the  modern  bristly  so- 
called  bacon  types  of  swine  to  enter  the  field  which 
should  have  been  held  by  this  great  American  breed. 
Along  with  the  good  qualities  secured,  others,  such  as 


Sivine.  127 

high  fecundity,  increased  milk-giving,  larger  propor- 
tion of  lean  meat  to  total  weight  and  strong  constitu- 
tions could  have  been  retained. 

The  next  step  in  the  discussion  is  to  consider  how 
these  changes  in  form,  color  and  fecundity  were 
brought  about.  Poland-Chinas,  on  account  of  their 
origin  had  in  their  inherited  constitution  numerous 
dominant  and  atavic  characters  of  nearly  pure  original 
types;  and  many  combinations  of  these  new  char- 
acteristics produced  by  the  hybridizing  were  pos- 
sible. Tn  the  seventies  a  crusade  was  begun  among 
meat  stock  leaders  for  the  early  maturing,  rectangular, 
short-legged,  compact,  thick-meated  types  of  hogs,  cat- 
tle and  sheep,  and  as  one  looks  back  little  was  said 
about  fecundity,  milk-giving  capacity,  longevity  or 
disease- resisting  power.  The  score  card  was  incom- 
plete, narrow  and  only  a  one-sided  result  could  be  ex- 
pected. Swine  responded  the  most  rapidly  and  the  Po- 
land-Chinas, being  a  hybrid  breed  and  therefore  full 
of  variations,  were  especially  susceptible  to  rapid 
change.  Breeders  could  choose  by  appearance  in 
changing  to- the  types  mentioned.  And  while  observing 
men  had  for  a  long  time  more  or  less  clearly  realized 
that  chunky  fat  females  will  not  average  high  in  fecun- 
dity, they  bred  on  in  extreme  eagerness  to  exc^l  each 
other  in  producing  these  forms  plain  to  be  discerned 
by  mere  inspection,  pleasing  to  the  eye,  ''demanded  by 
the  trade,''  and  leaders  in  getting  ribbons  at  one-sided 
shows. 

Cheap,  rich  foods  and  especially  corn  had  here  a 
profound  influence.  Certain  individual  hogs  were 
especially  responsive  to  the  rich  fatness  of  a  clover  and 
corn  diet  and,  developing  early  into  the  breeder's  ideal 
of  fatness  and  rectangular  beauty,  these  types  were 
chosen  out  of  the  bunch  and  retained  for  breeders. 
Since  only  the  few  out  of  many  were  necessary  to  be- 
come dominant  in  the  future  herds  those  which  especi- 
ally responded  to  strong  feeding  and  therefore  became 
heads  of  herds  soon  dominated  the  blood  of  the  breed. 


128  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

Thus  relatively  a  few  peculiarly  constituted  germs  of 
the  breed  came  to  be  the  basis  of  the  breed,  the  rich 
feed  being  simply  the  selecting  agency,  not  directly 
the  producer  of  these  germs.  In  the  original  hybrid 
mixture  were  a  sufficient  number  of  elements  to  be 
framed  as  dominants  into  the  ideal  of  form  cc^mmonly 
desired  by^breeders.  Far  more  of  the  latent  elements, 
small,  earh^-maturing  blood  were,  no  doubt,  brought 
forward  from  their  atavic  or  as  Mendel  would  say, 
''recessive''  retreats,  while  less  of  the  coarse  white  and 
large  black  blood  w^as  allowed  to  remain  dominant. 
The  speculation  seems  reasonable  that  entirely  new 
combinations  of  characteristics  were  formed  in  the 
blood  and  became  dominated;  that  is,  hybridizing  cre- 
ated new  forms. 

An  extreme  case  of  how  this  plan  of  selection  for 
mere  appearance  of  individual  form  affected  the  breed 
came  recently  to  my  notice.  A  certain  breeder  of  Po- 
land-Chinas in  the  Corn-belt  produced  annually  a  good- 
ly num.ber  of  pure-bred  pigs  which  he  sold  early  in 
the  autumn  at  auction  to  the  farmers  of  his  county. 
He  was  breeding  two  families.  One  family  raised  an 
average  of  eight  pigs  per  sow.  The  other  family  rais- 
ed an  average  of  only  four.  The  sows  bearing  only 
four  pigs  w^ere  fairly  good  milkers  and  brought  their 
pigs  forward  to  the  auction  in  excellent  form,  large 
and  very  attractive.  The  sow^s  bearing  eight  pigs  per 
litter,  though  slightly  better  milkers,  produced  pigs 
which  could  not  compare  with  those  of  the  other  fami- 
ly, because  each  of  the  eight  pigs  had  only  a  limited 
supply  of  his  dam's  milk.  The  thriftiest  and  most  en- 
terprising farmers  were  after  the  best  and  would  vie 
with  each  other  for  the  plump,  fine  pigs  from  the  well- 
fed  small  litters  and  would  bid  the  prices  up  to  $35 
apiece,  netting  the  owners  $120  or  more  per  litter  from 
the  sows  bearing  few  pigs.  The  smaller  though  comely 
pigs  from  the  sows  strong  in  fecundity  would  sell  at 
from  $7  to  $10,  bringing  on  an  average  only  $75  per 


Swine,  129 

litter.  The  breeder  followed  the  demand  and  bred 
mainly  the  family  which  was  popular,  because  that  paid 
him  best  and  apparently  suited  his  patrons. 

After  a  number  of  years  his  Poland-Chinas  became 
unpopular.  Farmers  got  the  notion  that  hogs  from  his 
herd  were  not  sufficiently  prolific  to  be  profitable.  This 
illustrates  ihe  fact  that  mere  show  qualities  are  not  the 
whole,  but  are  far  less  than  half  compared  with  the 
centgener  or  breeding  power  of  the  family  or  breed. 
Our  shows  should  emphasize  this  principle  by  putting 
their  largest  prizes  on  the  get  of  a  sire  and  on  the  pro- 
duct of  a  dam.  In  wheat-breeding  we  have  come  from 
extending  experience  to  pay  little  attention  to  the  rela- 
tive yields  of  parent  plants,  once  we  have  a  compari- 
son of  the  average  values  of  a  hundred  of  the  progeny 
of  each.  Individual  excellence  is  necessary  both  for 
itself  and  as  an  index  to  breeding  power,  but  real  evi- 
dence of  breeding  power  is  the  final  guide.  Recently 
Mr.  Carlyle,  the  foreman  of  the  plant-breeding  nur- 
sery in  the  Minnesota  Experiment  Station  and  myself 
were  selecting  out  of  about  1,500  hybrid  wheats  those 
which  were  most  worthy  of  further  trial.  In  selecting 
175  of  the  best  to  continue  in  the  tests  we  had  for  in- 
spection the  yields  of  the  1,500  mother  plants,  also  the 
average  yields  per  plant  of  100  of  the  progeny  of  eack 
of  the  1,500  mother  plants.  These  mother  plants  were 
in  family  groups  and,  as  annually  happens,  when  wc 
had  finished  we  realized  that  our  minds  had  instinc- 
tively given  very  little  weight  to  the  yields  of  the 
mother  plants.  The  selection  had  been  based  almost 
entirely  upon  the  relative  yields  and  grades  of  the  graia 
of  the  average  progeny  of  the  respective  mother  plants 
and  much  weight  had  been  attached  to  the  fact  that 
certain  families  showed  throughout  a  tendency  to  large 
centgener  yields  and  high  quality  of  grain  as  breeders 
become  really  scientific  and  expert  artists  the  individu- 
ality counts  for  less  as  compared  with  authentic  evi- 
dences of  projected  breeding  efficiency. 

Some  years  ago  the  writer  accompanied  one  of  our 


130  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

leading  feeding  experimenters  on  a  tour  of  inspection 
of  the  hogs  in  a  national  show.  When  asked  if  breeding 
would  not  be  a  better  and  more  economical  wa^'  to  in- 
crease the  percentage  of  lean  meat  on  the  carcass  than 
by  special  feeding  he  replied  practically  as  follows : 
''Nature  gives  us  the  proportions  of  bone,  lean  and  fat. 
All  we  can  do  is  to  add  a  little  to  the  lean  by  giving  a 
ration  especially  rich  in  protein,"  The  fallacy  of  this 
reasoning  has  been  disproved  to  my  satisfaction  by  in- 
spection of  numerous  hogs  slaughtered  by  myself  and 
by  my  present  associate  and  former  assistant  Prof.  An- 
drew^ Boss.  The  first  two  hogs  slaughtered  a  dozen 
years  ago  in  the  instructional  work  of  slaughtering  and 
handling  meat  in  the  Minnesota  School  of  Agriculture 
opened  up  to  the  writer  a  large  field  of  study.  These 
two  young  hogs  were  equal  in  age  and  had  been  raised 
together.  One  was  a  Small  Yorkshire,  the  other  a  Po- 
land-China-Duroc-Jersey  hybrid.  It  is  worthy  of  note 
that  the  word  "hybrid''  is  coming  into  use  wherever 
distinct  types  of  plants  are  crossed,  and  as  it  has  proved 
preferable  there  should  also  be  used  in  animal  breed- 
ing, the  principles  in  this  respect  being  quite  similar 
in  plant  and  animal-breeding.  The  Small  Yorkshire 
carcass  had  muscles  outside  the  bony  'framework,  the 
thickness  of  which  we  may  represent  by  one  inch, 
w^hile  the  outside  fat  was  two  inches  thick.  The  other 
hog  liad  a  much  larger  frame,  but  the  percentage  of 
lean  meat  was  much  larger  in  proportion  to  skeleton, 
dressed  carcass  or  to  live  weight  than  in  the  Small 
Yorkshire  carcass,  and  its  proportions  could  almost 
Be  stated  in  reverse  order,  as  lean  meat  two  inches  thick 
and  the  fat  covering  one  inch  thick.  Prof.  Boss  has 
numerous  photographs  of  cross-sections  of  hog  car- 
casses, showing  larger  and  smaller  percentages  of  lean 
meat.  These  differences  occur  not  only  between  ani- 
mals of  different  breeds,  but  among  those  of  one  breed 
and  even  among  those  of  one  litter.  And  the  variation 
is  not  slight;  it  is  often  marked,  just  as  there  are 
marked  differences  in  the  yields  of  wheat  plants  of  the 


,  Swine,  131 

same  variety  or  differences  in  the  percentage  of  pro- 
tein or  fat  in  ears  of  corn.  There  is  no  character  in 
any  species  in  which  there  is  not  more  or  less  variation 
and  in  all  cases  the  variation  is  sufficient  to  serve  as  a 
basis  for  vast  improvement  by  breeding. 

Following  the  universal  law  of  variation  there  is 
no  doubt  that  hogs  vary  in  the  strength  of  their  breed- 
ing powers  and  in  the  efficiency  with  which  each  valu- 
able character  is  projected  by  heredity  into  future  gen- 
erations. In  breeding  hogs,  as  in  breeding  wheat,  dual- 
purpose  cows  or  business  drivers  the  work  must  be 
done  on  a  broad  basis.  The  herd  is  the  financial  unit 
in  hogs  and  to  be  profitable  there  must  be  blended  in 
the  male  and  female  individuals  all  those  good  qualities 
necessary  to  financial  success  in  the  herd.  While  the 
breeding  has  often  been  along  too  narrow  lines  in  the 
past  many  families  of  this  great  breed  contain  the  de- 
sired qualities  to  a  marked  degree. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

CARVER  COUNTY  POLAND  CHINAS. 

It  is  probable  that  an  association  or  a  large  breeder 
could  better  become  both  famous  and  rich  by  breeding 
pure-bred  Poland-Chinas  than  by  hybridizing  thera 
with  other  breeds.  At  the  same  time  there  is  an  abund- 
ance of  proof  that  it  is  not  very  difficult  to  form  new 
hybrid  breeds  of  swine  and  that  it  does  not  require  very 
many  years,  and  that  also  by  this  means  progress  can 
be  made.  The  Poland-Chinas  and  the  Davis  Victorias 
are  examples  of  rapid  work  in  reducing  new  breeds  to 
a  type.  Profound  changes  can  be  made  within  the 
breed,  and  with  properly-recorded  evidences  of  changes 
of  intrinsic  qualities  attached  to  certain  individuals  and 
blood  lines  there  is  a  large  source  of  profit  in  supplying 
improved  and  liighW  accredited  males  to  head  the  best 
herds  of  the  entire  breed.  In  originating  new  hybrid 
breeds  or  in  choosing  some  of  the  breeds  of  which  the 
number  of  pure-bred  herds  is  comparatively  small, 
there  is  no  large  market  for  high-priced  individuals 
for  heads  of  herds,  as  was  mentioned  in  connection 
with  breeding  milking  Short-horn  cattle.  Only  breed- 
ers with  large  or  valuable  herds  of  pure-bred  hogs  will 
usually  pay  high  prices  for  males  or  females  for  breed- 
ing. They  can  do  so  only  because  they  have  ^  large 
market  for  breeding  stock  among  smaller  breeders  of 
registered  stock  and  among  enterprising  farmers. 
Breeding  Poland-Chinas  with  performance  record  ped- 
igrees would  be  profitable  because  of  the  large  field 
for  the  sale  of  very  choice  stock  among  the  thousands 
of  American  breeders  of  registered  Poland-Chinas. 

A  county  swine  breeding  association,  with  Poland- 
Chinas  containing  the  good  qualities  of  the  best  exist- 
ing families,  and  in  addition  strong  in  fecundity  and  in 


Carver  Count    Poland  Chinas,  133 

milk-giving,  high  in  per  cent  of  superior  lean  meat, 
possibly  more  resistant  to  cholera  than  the  average,  and 
with  such  facts  properly  attested  in  statistical  pedi- 
grees, would  have  a  gold  mine.  The  breeders  of  pure- 
bred Poland-Chinas  everywhere  would  be  in  a  line  to 
pay  good  prices  for  males  and  females.  To  carry  this 
idea  further,  let  us  suppose  that  in  Carver  county,  Min- 
nesota, such  an  association  were  formed.  Let  this  be 
done  under  co-operation  with  the  State  experiment  sta- 
tion, 40  miles  distant.  Let  there  be  an  organization  of 
farmers  similar  to  those  mentioned  in  previous  articles 
for  breeding  cattle.  In  order  that  the  type  sought  shall 
become  clearly  fixed  in  the  minds  of  breeders  let  in- 
vestigations at  the  experiment  stations  on  the  relative 
percentage  of  lean  meat  and  also  on  the  relative  fecun- 
dity and  the  relative  milk-giving  capacity  of  sows  be 
continued.  Let  the  breeders'  association  and  the  ex- 
periment station  join  in  deciding  upon  the  character- 
istics desired  in  the  proposed  new  family  of  hogs.  Let 
the  association  and  the  station  each  appoint  a  man,  the 
two  men  to  act  together  as  a  purchasing  committee. 
Let  this  committee  by  correspondence  and  travel  review 
the  available  facts  concerning  all  the  best  families  of 
Poland-China  hogs  in  America.  There  might  be  pur- 
chased for  each  of  say  20  members  of  the  association 
10  sows  and  one  boar,  or  200  sows  and  20  boars.  All 
members  should  arrange  to  have  their  sows  farrow  at 
about  the  same  time,  so  that  the  pigs  may  be  properly 
compared.  When  the  pigs  are  four  months  old  part  of 
each  litter  could  be  properly  marked  and  sent  to  the 
experiment  station  or  to  some  central  point  in  the  coun- 
ty and  fed  under  the  direction  of  the  station  or  other 
officials.  For  this  purpose,  after  discarding  any  ab- 
normally poor  pigs,  the  litter  could  be  divided.  The 
best  could  be  retained  for  breeders  and  the  remainder 
sent  to  the  trials.  The  results  of  the  feeding  tests  of 
the  two,  three  or  four  from  each  litter  could  thus  be 
averaged  and  used  as  the  "centgener"  or  family  rec- 
ords of  the  two  parents.     The  tests  could  include  1 


T34  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

feeding  experiment  of  say  60  days  during  the  fifth 
and  sixth  months  of  the  pigs'  lives,  allowing  uniform 
rations.  Each  litter,  but  not  each  pig,  would  need  to 
be  fed  separately  -  so  as  to  secure  a  coefficient  as  to  the 
amount  of  standard  food  required  by  each  family  to 
produce  a  pound  of  pork. 

The  pigs  in  the  feeding  test  could  then  be  sent  to 
the  abattoir  at  the  experiment  station  and  slaughtered 
under  test.  The  tests  here  could  include  percentage  of 
lean  meat,  freedom  from  diseased  conditions,  percent- 
age of  dressed  carcass  to  live  weight,  value  of  the  sev- 
eral cuts  in  detail  and  of  entire  carcass  and  such  other 
data  as  might  prove  of  value  and  be  practical  to  secure. 
It  now  seems  feasible  by  experimenting  on  a  few  scores 
of  hogs  to  establish  a  tabular  scale  applicable  to  the 
leadings  of  a  planimeter  used  to  measure  the  areas  of 
lean  meat,  fat  and  bone  in  cross  sections  made  at  defi- 
nite places  of  the  carcass,  thus  cheaply  securing  the 
percentage  of  lean  meat  in  each  animal  placed  in  tests, 
as  already  mentioned.  These  measurements  can  be 
made  on  the  cuts  as  made  for  commercial  sale,  thus 
not  lessening  the  value  of  the  meat.  The  State  could 
well  afford  to  help  pay  tlie  extra  expense  of  the  care- 
ful feeding*,  do  the  slaughter  testing  and  work  out  the 
coefficients  of  value  and  thus  give  them  official  standing 
in  the  association's  statistical  pedigrees.  The  experi- 
ment demonstration  that  breeding  could  thus  be  ad- 
vanced w^ould  many  times  over  be  repaid  to  the  State 
in  the  added  revenue  to  farmers  and  breeders  which 
this  would  produce.  All  the  young  animals  should  be 
judged  on  foot  before  dividing  each  litter  into  reserved 
breeding  and  test  stock,  the  station  assisting,  that  the 
general  appearance  and  particular  form  of  each  ani- 
mal may  be  recorded  and  in  so  far  as  useful,  officially 
incorporated  into  the  statistical  pedigrees. 

The  association  would  know  approximately  at  the 
end  of  the  first  season  the  values  of  each  male  and 
female  selected  for  original  foundation  stock.  All  the 
poorer  blood  lines  could  be  discarded.     The  best  sows 


Carver  County  Poland  Chinas.  135 

and  the  very  best  males  of  the  original  purchase  could 
thus  be  retained  from  among  the  many  and  brought 
together  and  made  the  foundation  animals.  The  ex- 
ploration for  superior  foundation  animals  might  also 
be  continued.  The  year's  experience  in  mating,  rear- 
ing and  testing  and  the  acquaintance  gained  by  seek- 
ing the  original  foundation  stock  would  all  be  of  as- 
sistance in  knowing  how  to  secure  other  blood  lines 
from  the  outside.  Experience  might  prove  that  thou- 
sands rather  than  hundreds  of  foundation  animals 
should  be  secured  and  their  powers  as  breeders  tested. 
In  preliminary  work  in  selecting  foundation  individ- 
uals, parents  of  breeds  or  varieties  in  breeding  hogs  as 
well  as  in  breeding  wheat  or  timothy,  large  numbers 
must  be  tested  and  all  but  the  very  highest  in  breeding 
value  or  "projected  efficiency"  discarded.  Here  more 
than  half  the  battle  will  be  won  in  securing  from 
among  the  myriads  of  Poland-Chinas  in  America  those 
which  are  best.  By  mere  inspection,  inquiring  of 
breeders,  examining  herd  records  of  performance,  by 
learning  of  the  patrons  and  neighbors  of  the  value  of 
the  stock  of  breeders  who  contest  for  the  honor  of  hav~ 
ing  the  association  try  their  hogs,  can  the  largest  part 
of  the  elimination  be  done.  And  this  is  cheaper  if  done 
for  the  first  rougher  selections,  thus  avoiding  so  much, 
of  the  feeding  and  abattoir  laboratory  tests  mentioned.. 
The  writer  has  added  45  per  cent  to  the  height  of  com.- 
mon  flax  bred  for  fiber,  and  a  lesser  amount  to  the 
yield  of  other  varieties  bred  from  the  same  foundation 
varieties  but  bred  for  seed  instead  of  fiber.  Four-fifths 
of  this  increase,  in  case  of  the  fiber,  at  least,  was  added 
by  the  first  year's  work  of  selection,  in  securing  the 
few  tallest  from  fields  of  immense  numbers  of  plants 
and  at  almost  no  expense.  The  addition  of  the  other- 
one-fifth  of  the  increased  height  was  added  by  severai 
years  of  careful  plant  breeding  in  the  nursery  and  at 
CGi:siderable  expense.  The  original  selection  of  found- 
ation stock  offers  the  greatest  opportunity  for  making 


136  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

imprcrvements  and  should  be  done  with  inteUigence  and 
with  great  care. 

In  case  of  wheat,  oats  and  other  close-fertiUzed 
plants  we  form  permanent  varieties  successfully  from 
a  single  mother  plant.  In  corn  the  plants  are  accus- 
tomed to  free  open  or  cross-pollination,  and  incestuous 
bleeding  is  disastrous.  In  swine  too  close  breeding  is 
unwise.  The  fewest  blood  lines,  blood  of  individuals 
used  as  foundation  stocks,  which  may  safely  be  blend- 
ed and  yet  avoid  too  close  inbreeding  have  not  been  de- 
termined. It  would  ordinarily  pay  to  err  on  the  safe 
side.  It  is  quite  probable  that  the  blood  of  a  dozen 
foundation  animals,  especially  if  two  or  three  of  them 
were  males,  could  safely  be  so  managed  that  continu- 
ally crossing  their  blood  lines  would  avoid  the  ill  ef- 
fects of  breeding  too  close  relationship  and  would  al- 
low for  a  few  blood  lines  to  be  discarded,  as  pedigrees 
showed  that  after  all  only  a  few  blood  lines  were  really 
dominating  the  entire  new  breed.  This  has  been  the 
experience  in  breeding  Thoroughbred  horses  and 
doubtless  would  occur  here.  It  may  be  that  families 
w^ould  be  secured  which  would  stand  very  incestuous 
breeding,  as  there  is  variation  in  this  as  in  all  other 
characteristics.*  As  die  elimination  goes  on  from  year 
to  year  the  few  choicest  original  foundation  animals, 
or  those  animals  of  exceptional  breeding  power  which 
may  be  produced  in  the  course  of  this  blending  (really 
hybridizing)  of  the  best  obtainable  Poland-China  blood, 
w'ill  rapidly  become  the  whole  of  the  county  breed.  If 
the  tests  are  kept  up  theories  of  close  breeding  and 
line  breeding  may  be  developed  and  even  proved.  But 
the  tests  for  intrinsic  qualify,  will  do  the  guiding. 
Branches  of  the  new  family  which  are  inclined  to  go  to 
pieces  because  of  inbreeding  will  fall  out.  The  blood 
of  only  those  which  stand  the  rigid  tests  wnll  be  per- 
petuated.    And  those  blood  lines  which  are  best  suited 


*See  N.  H.  Gentry's  paper  on  "Inbreeding:  Berkshires"  in  Vol 
1.  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Breeders'  Association,  W. 
M.   Hays,   Secretary,  Washington,  D.   C. 


Carver  County  Poland  Chinas,  137 

to  the  food,  to  the  method  of  breeding  pursued,  to 
niajiagement  and  climate,  and  which  come  out  victor- 
ious in  the  tests  through  a  long  series  of  years,  will 
have  guaranteed  that  they  will  not  go  to  pieces  in  the 
future.  Our  newly-selected  wheats,  which  excel  in  the 
nursery  for  four  years,  in  field  plot  tests  for  four  years 
and  in  the  farmers'  fields  for  two  years,  in  order  to 
earn  their  performance  pedigrees  of  superiority  are  not 
liable  to  degenerate  as  soon  as  they  are  disseminated. 
Likewise  our  new  hybrid  wheats  which  are  given  free 
rein  for  three  years  to  pass  through  their  first  stage  for 
variation  and  then  subjected  to  lo-year  tests,  the  same 
as  mentioned  for  selected  wheats,  are  not  likely  to  sovv' 
moiL  youthful  wild  oats  when  they  are  used  by_  the 
farmer  to  earn  him  a  dollar  or  two  additional  per  acre. 
MendeFs  law  gives  renewed  confidence  that  dominant 
characters,  once  they  gain  the  ascendency,  are  perman- 
ently domniant. 

The  blood  of  a  superior  boar  or  sow  may  be  mul- 
tiplied with  such  astonishing  rapidity  that  once  value 
is  given  by  acceptable  pedigrees  showing  peculiar 
breeding  efficiency  the  blood  of  a  few  of  the  best  ani- 
mals may  soon  have  full  sway  in  a  herd  or  in  all  the 
herds  of  an  association  and  will  soon  be  widely  influen- 
tial throughout  the  entire  breed.  It  is  not  a  difficult 
task  to  add  10  per  cent  to  the  value  of  a  State's  stock 
of  w^heat  or  flax.  Twenty  farmers  could  produce  a 
new  race  of  valuable  hogs  in  much  shorter  time  than 
they  can  bring  their  boys  from  birth  to  manly  matur- 
ity and  with  no  more  strenuous  attention  to  duty  nor 
larger  exercise  of  patience.  Plans,  organizations,  co- 
operation, capital  and  energetic  attention  to  details  are 
necessary  in  all  lines  of  human  endeavor.  Why  leave 
all  the  merging  of  interests  of  those  who  deal  with  the 

farmers  ? 

It  is  quite  probable  that  discussion,  and  especially 
putting  them  to  the  test  of  use,  would  show  serious 
faults  with  the  plans  here  suggested.    The  writer  hopes 

to  at  least  arouse  breeders  from  their  lethargy  and  to 


J 38  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

induce  the  development  of  new  propositions  in  animal 
breeding.  We  need  to  see  that  the  subject  of  breeding 
offers  virgin  pages  upon  which  our  young  men  can 
prepare  to  write.  Swine  is  the  best  species  with  w^hich 
to  conduct  many  of  the  needed  experiments.  The  gen- 
erations come  rapidly  and  in  large  numbers  and  the 
products  will  pay  most  of  the  bills  and  in  the  end  will 
increase  production  that  they  will  be  a  source  of  much 
much  added  wealth. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

BREEDING  BUSINESS  DRIVERS. 

The  love  of  show,  catering  to  fashion  and  the  sport- 
ing instinct,  and  the  desire  for  useful,  pretty  and  in- 
teresting horses  have  been  powerful  factors  in  breed- 
ing drivers.  While  the  demand  is  large  for  driving 
horses  bred  for  use  in  the  family  carriage,  the  doctor's 
wagon,  the  business  man's  road-wagon,  the  lieht  de- 
livery wagon,  and  other  vehicles  there  has  been  little 
eitort  to  breed  directly  and  specifically  for  that  clas:^ 
of  horses.  The  racing  thought  has  entered  into  the 
ideal  nearly  all  along  the  line  and  instead  of  having 
horses  bred  to  a  driver's  type  we  have  a  mixed  type, 
yearly  approaching  m^ore  and  more  the  grey-hound-like 
racing  type,  though  the  tendency  to  breed  a  class  of 
drivers  with  more,  body  and  less  racing  instinct  is  also 
growing. 

While  the  breeding  has  been  more  especially  for 
trotting  racers  the  proportion  of  really  speedy  ones 
has  been  small,  and  that  of  really  first-class  drivers 
still  smaller.  In  the  absence  of  any  adequate  plan  of 
breeding  drivers  with  more  body,  more  strength,  more 
toughness,  more  docility,  more  beauty,  more  grace  and 
more  uniformity,  breeders  have  been  content  while  try- 
ing to  breed  for  the  occasional  speed  horse  to  use  the 
left-overs  for  driving.  The  clear,  vigorous  and  con- 
tinued attempts  to  collect  the  very  best  blood  suited 
to  founding  breed's  or  families,  which  would  be  uni- 
formly toppers  for  drivers,  not  racers,  have  been  few 
and  feeble.  As  a  result  we  have  a  racy  lot  of  driving 
horses  for  family  and  business  use,  with  an  occasional 
individual  standard-bred  or  more  often  grade  horse, 
which  nearly  meets  the  ideal.  The  trotting  breed  would 
be  better  off  if  all  but  its  best  ten  per  cent  were  crowd- 


140  Breeding  Plants  andi  Anhnals. 

ed  out  of  existence  by  a  breed  of  non-racing  substan- 
tial drivers. 

Some  of  the  collections  or  famililes  of  drivers  and 
coachers  already  in  existence  are  being-  used  as  basic 
groups  with  which  to  make  a  beginning  without  too 
much  further  crossing  and  disturbing  of  blood.  The 
starting  of  a  newly  compound  breed  of  horses  is  truly 
a  long-time  proposition  and  from  that  standpoint  very 
difficult,  both  from  a  financial  and  a  breeding  point  of 
view.  The  foundation  stocky  if  used  in  the  necessary 
large  numbers,  is  very  expensive;  the  generations  le- 
volve  slowly,  as  each  female  has  only  one  young  at  a  • 
birth,  does  not  uniformly  bear  a  colt  every  year  and 
the  young  require  several  years  to  mature.  On  the 
other  iiand  the  ultimate  object  is  large.  Individuals 
and  co-operative  associations  with  capital  and  with  the 
disposition  as  well  as  the  ability  to  wait  for  results, 
could  reap  large  rewards  from  well-directed  efforts 
carried  out  on  a  large  scale.  Large  corporations  or  co- 
operative associations  in  working  out  standards  in  the 
keeping  of  records  and  in  assuring  continuity  and  high 
character  to  the  work  and  giving  authenticity  to  the 
pedigree  records  of  breeding  powers,  aided  throughout 
by  the  State  or  United  States  Government,  could  do 
this  work.  It  has  proved  wise  in  Ontario,  Wisconsin, 
Minnesota  and  in  other  states  to  invest  public  funds  in 
dairy  instruction  and  dairy  inspection,  so  as  to  better  the 
quality  and  sustain  the  reputation  of  the  output  of 
creamery  butter  and  cheese.  Proportionate  expenditure 
in  breeding  a  class  of  driving  horses  which  might  be 
remarkable  at  high  prices  in  all  the  markets  of  the  coun- 
try and  even  in  other  countries  might  be  equally  profit- 
able to  the  State.  The  nation,  the  State,  the  county,  co- 
ot )erative  associations,  corporations  and  separate  indi- 
viduals are  all  capable  of  co-operating  wnth  each  o<-her 
to  the  mutual  advantage  of  all  and  to  the  profit  of 
the  entire  public.  We  do  not  hesitate  to  apply  tliis 
piinciple  when  we  are  improving  harbors,  subsidizing 
railway?  or  building  highways,  as  well  as  in  the  com- 


Breeding  Business  Drivers.  141 

nion  defence  of  our  country.  Why  should  wc  be 
averse  to  applying  this  principle  of  co-operation  of 
public  and  private  interests  to  improving  our  live  stock, 
as  w  ell  as  to  breeding  wheat  or  devising  better  schemes 
of  farm  management?  In  case  each  problem  be  found 
too  difficult  for  the  farmer  to  solve  for  himself,  the 
commonwealth  may  properly  co-operate  with  him  in 
order  that  all  may  bear  the  expense  and  all  share  in  the 
advantage. 

Wabasha  Co.,  Minn.,  might  be  a  good  field  for  co- 
operation in  the  breeding  of  driving  horses.  The  farm- 
ers have  the  means,  their  lands  are  rich,  they  have  to 
a  greater  extent  than  any  other  county  in  the  State 
the  habit  of  sending  their  sons  to  the  agricultural  high 
school  at  St.  Anthony  P!ark.  There  is  no  reason  why 
an  association  of  twenty  or  even  fifty  farmers  could 
not  be  successfully  inaugurated  in  that  county.  It  is 
less  than  100  miles  from  St.  Paul  and  Miuiirapolis  and 
about  ^00  miles  from  Chicago,  with  thci^  great  hors.- 
markets.  The  whole  West  is  a  growing  maiket  for 
driving  lir.rses  and  will  always  have  a  full  purse  for 
those  having  the  proper  size,  finish  and  quality.  The 
wealth  of  this  country  is  increasing  rapidly  and  fine 
horses  are  practical  necessities  and  luxuries  which  peo- 
ple will  pay  well  to  secure. 

Let  thirty  or  more  farmers  form  an  association  and 
purchase  an  average  of  five  mares  each.  Let  the  as- 
sociation purchase  ten  stallions  and  have  each  stallion 
serve  fifteen  of  the  150  mares  and  also  do  service  in 
his  neighborhood.  Other  farmers  could  easily  be  in- 
duced to  raise  grade  colts,  possibly  giving  the  asso- 
ciation an  option  at  a  certain  price  on  all  colts  at  a 
given  age,  as  at  one  year,  at  two  years  and  at  three 
years  of  age.  The  stallions  could  be  used  in  rotation, 
as  mentioned  for  males  in  other  breeds,  and  their 
breeding  efficiency  could  thus  be  compared  so  that  in 
several  years  all  but  the  few  best  male  blood  lines  could 
be  dropped.  The  mares,  being  bred  successively  to 
several  horses,  could  be  compared  in  their  colt-rearing 


142  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

ability,  and  all  but  several  of  the  best  female  blocfl 
lines  could  be  gradually  discarded.  The  statistical 
pedigrees  thus  systematically  worked  up  would  soon 
show  which  combinations  of  the  best  blood  gave  the 
highest  average  of  values  in  producing  desirable  ani- 
mals, uniform  and  capable  of  being  sold  singly  or  in 
matched  teams  at  good  prices.  The  dealing  in  grades 
raised  by  patrons  of  the  studs,  sales  of  mares  and  geld- 
ings from  the  registered  stock,  and  the  sale  of  males 
to  be  used  for  upgrading  in  other  counties  and  States, 
also  the  sale  of  males  and  females  to  other  breeders  of 
driving  horses,  should  become  very  profitable.  By 
some  means,  as  by  a  system  of  options,  all  the  very 
best  stallions  produced  by  the  different  members  could 
be  retained  to  serve  as  association  studs.  Once  estab- 
lished on  a  profitable  basis  the  production  of  registered 
Wabasha  drivers  would  be  attractive  to  other  Wabasha 
farmers  and  the  more  the  better. 

The  agricultural  college  could  well  afford  to  ar- 
range a  special  short  course  and  bring  to  it  the  best 
teachers  of  horse  breeding  in  the  country,  if  such  a 
country  organization  of  breeders  were  in  position  to 
demand  or  to  utilize  such  instruction.  After  a  number 
of  years  the  experiences  of  the  members,  the  accumu- 
lated records,  the  rich  blood  lines  in  the  possession  of 
the  association,  the  beautiful  and  useful  horses  grow- 
ing up,  the  activity  of  the  best  markets  for  Wabasha 
drivers,  the  nice  profits  and  the  general  enjoyment  and 
higher  intelligence  resulting  from  successful  co-opera- 
tion would  add  to  Wabasha  County's  civilization  and 
tc  its  charms  as  a  place  for  country  homes.  Such 
schemes  do  away  with  but  little  of  individualism,  but 
tlie  co-operation  makes  possible  greater  opporUmities 
and  liberties  for  all.  The  co-operative  creamery  is  our 
most  wonderful  example  of  how  co-operation  may  do 
away  with  the  individualism  of  drudgery.  At  one 
stroke  the  wife  has  thus  had  the  milk  and  churning 
burden  lifted  from  her  shoulders  and  at  the  same  time 
butter  production  has  been  made  to  pay  better.     Hie 


Breeding  Busings  Drivers.  143 

breeding  of  drivers  does  not  end  with  raising  horses. 
Educating  them  is  quite  as  important  a  branch  of  the 
business  as  breeding  them.  Let  Wabasha  County  be- 
come as  deeply  interested  in  breeding  high-priced  driv- 
ers as  the  Island  of  Jersey  is  in  produc'ng  T-rscy  cat- 
tle, or  as  Herefordshire  is  in  breeding  Hereford  cattle, 
and  a  county  horse  training  school  would  be  a  neces- 
sity. The  bright  young  farm  boys  of  that  county  have 
thought  they  had  not  work  of  sufficient  importance  on 
the  farm,  as  shown  by  the  fact  that  too  many  of  them 
are  seeking  to  become  clerks,  barbers,  bookkeepers, 
stenographers,  conductors  on  street  cars  or  railways, 
locomotive  engineers  and  prgfessional  men.  They  are 
giving  the  farm  labor  and  the  farm  opportunities  over 
to  raw  recruits  from  Europe.  Hon.  E.  W.  Knapp, 
chairman  of  the  legislative  committee  of  the  State 
Grange  to  especially  urge  appropriations  for  the  agri  ■ 
cultural  high  school  and  for  agricultural  instruction  in 
rural  schools,  a  resident  of  Wabasha  County,  says  prac- 
tically as  follows : 

"The  sons  of  the  old  New  England  stock,  who  as 
pioneers  settled  Wabasha  County,  are  inclined  to  leave 
the  farm  to  the  foreigner.  The  numerous  graduates 
of  the  agricultural  school  are  bringing  back  a  better 
state  of  affairs.  We  need  new  methods,  special  lines 
of  business  on  the  farm,  which  will  meet  the  desires 
and  use  the  abilities  of  the  superior  New  England  blood 
which  settled  the  country  that  we  may  keep  more  of 
this  superior  blood  on  the  farm.'' 

The  merger  idea  is  rampant  in  all  lines  of  activity, 
the  printing  press,  education,  the  railway,  the  tele- 
graph, the  telephone  and  other  agencies  have  given 
mobility  to  affairs.  As  in  lines  where  co-operative  or- 
ganization or  corporate  arrangements  greatly  increase 
the  value  of  the  product  individual  efforts  cannot  com- 
pete, so  in  the  foundation  of  a  breed  of  drivers  the  in- 
dividual cannot  so  well  cope  with  the  problem. 

Think  of  the  Wabasha  County  horsewomen  in  a 
community  making  a  specialty  of  breeding  and  educat- 


144  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

ing  drivers.  The  sisters,  wives  and  daughters  can  en- 
ter into  the  work  of  developing,  training  and  matching 
colts.  Picture  the  Wabasha  County  Fair  with  such  an 
interest  to  hold  it  up  to  a  high  standard.  Realize  the 
victories  of  sales  day,  when  the  buyers  come  commis- 
sioned to  bring  to  their  rich  city  patrons  the  beautiful 
drivers,  the  family  pets,  the  matched  beauties  and  the 
prize  winners.  Let  this  industry,  if  you  please,  set  a 
pace  for  other  lines  of  farm  effort, ,  co-operative  and 
otherwise.  Such  organizations  have  a  most  useful 
function  in  the  agricultural  affairs  of  a  State.  With 
a  large  number  of  such  co-operative  organizations  act- 
ing in  unison,  through  representatives  in  the  State  agri- 
cultural society  and  in  other  general  agricultural  or- 
ganizations agricultural  interests  would  receive  their 
just  share  of  emphasis  and  attention.  In  such  organ- 
ization farmers  would  learn  better  how  to  co-operate, 
and  better  team  work  would  result  in  political,  school, 
church  and  other  organizations  devoted  to  county  af- 
fairs. 

There  is  no  need  of  here  going  into  details  about 
the  construction  of  score  cards,  methods  .  of  keeping 
score  card  judgments  and  of  recording  the  perfor- 
mance records  of  individual  animals  or  their  ''centgen- 
er"  powers  as  breeders.  These  would  be  worked  out 
by  the  leaders  in  the  movement  and  officers  of  agri- 
cultural colleges  and  stations  interested  in  breeding 
and  in  good  horses  would  be  delighted  to  assist  in  the 
development  of  score  cards,  of  pedigree  plans  and  even 
of  business  organization.  The  horsemen  of  the  county, 
especially  those  experienced  in  the  statistics  of  perfor- 
mance records  in  breeding  trotting  and  running  horses, 
have  a  store  of  information  which  would  here  be  of 
value.  Knowledge  would  develop  apace  and  the  bright 
men  in  such  an  association  would  soon  form  a  school 
for  one  another. 

The  words  "individual  merit"  are  used  in  refer- 
ring to  the  measure  expressed  on  the  score  card  when 
comparing  animals  or  when  comparing  an  animal  with 


Breeding  Business  Drivers,  145 

an  ideal  standard.  The  words  "breeding  power,"  "cent- 
gener  power"  or  "projected  efficiency"  serve  when 
comparing  values  of  individual  animals  as  parents,  or 
as  prospective  parents  as  foundation  blood  for  new 
families  or  new  herds.  But  there  is  no  common  terse 
expression  to  be  used  in  comparing  the  farm  value  of 
one  herd  or  one  breed  of  domestic  animals  with  an- 
other herd  or  breed.  "Farm  value"  expresses  the  idea 
only  fairly  well.  The  words  "agrogenera  value"  (agro 
— field  or  farm,  and  genera — of  one  family)  is  sug- 
gested for  use  in  comparing  a  herd  of  one  line  of 
breeding  with  a  herd  of  different  breeding.  Thus  the 
agrogenera  value,  or  profits,  to  the  farmer  on  Wabasha 
drivers  would  be  larger  than  that  of  herds  of  standard- 
bred  trotters.  The  occasional  very  fast  trotter  is  valu^ 
able,  but  the  farmer  generally  gets  only  a  moderate 
price,  the  profits  going  mainly  to  some  future  owner 
who  develops  the  speed.  All  but  the  fast  ones  sell  at 
only  very  moderate  prices,  as  the  average  for  a  series 
of  years,  and  the  mares  do  not  serve  so  well  to  do  the 
farm  work.  Mares  of  Wabasha  driver  breeding  on  the 
other  hand  if  bred  to  larger  size  with  more  body  would 
serve  well  as  farm  horses,  and  by  breeding  directly 
for  the  driving  purposes  there  would  be  a  larger  num- 
ber which  would  sell  for  high  prices  for  driving  so  as 
to  bring  the  average  sale-price  higher  than  that  of  the 
standard-bred  product.  The  racing  interest  has  too 
much  control  over  the  breeding  of  drivers.  Would 
not  our  country  be  better  off  if  it  had  in  place  of  the 
poorer  two-thirds  of  the  standard  blood  and  grade  trot- 
ting horses,  registered  herds  of  larger,  stronger  bodied, 
tough,  long-winded,  long-lived,  docile,  good  acting, 
handsome  drivers? 


CHAPTER  XXL 

BREEDING  FUNK  PERCHERONS 

Many  lines  of  agricultural  effort  are  progressing 
more  rapidly  than  animal  breeding.  Wonders  are  al- 
ready being  done  in  this  line,  but  our  present  achieve- 
inents  will,  no  doubt,  seem  tame  beside  what  may  be 
accomplished  before  many  decades.  Had  we  a  man  ir 
animal  breeding  who  had  accomplished  such  wonderful 
achievements  as  Burbank  in  plant-breeding,  animal  im- 
provement would  be  given  a  new  impetus.  I  am  not 
pessimistic  over  what  has  been  done,  but  very  optimis- 
tic over  what  can  and  should  be  done.  Men  are  needed 
whO'  can  do  for  artificial  evolution — evolution  under 
the  influence  of  man — what  Charles  Darwin  did  for 
natural  or  historical  evolution.  Schools  of  the  philos- 
ophy and  practice  of  breeding  in  its  broadest  sense 
should  produce  such  men.  The  subject  is  so  broad; 
the  philosophy  so  deep;  the  details  so  vast  in  number 
and  varied  in  character ;  many  of  the  facts  and  theories 
so  buried  in  abstruse  reasoning;  the  human  interests 
affected  are  so  diverse ;  the  economic  and  artistic  needs 
are  so  varied  and  capable  of  multiplication  into  such 
a  maze  of  forms,  and  the  entire  wealth  at  stake  is  so  stu- 
pendous that  the  science,  art  and  business  of  breeding 
fomi  one  of  the  largest  human  interests.  The  finding, 
developing,  measuring,  making  records  of,  emphasiz- 
ing and  purveying  the  blood  of  the  few  germs  with  the 
very  highest  projected  breeding  efiiciency  represent 
greater  riches  than  a  Klondike. 

To  further  emphasize  the  subject  and  to  incite  con- 
structive thought  I  will  indulge  in  a  line  of  specific 
suggestions  in  breeding  draft  horses.  For  convenience 
let  us  assume  the  point  of  view  of  the  big  seed  company 
in  Central  Illinois.     Here  nearlv  two  dozen  men  of  one 


Breeding  Funk  Fere  herons.  147 

family — the  Funks — owning  25,000  acres  of  exceed- 
ingly fine  land  worth  over  ^3,000,000  iare  already  joined 
together  in  a  co-operative  association  organized  some- 
what after  the  manner  of  a  co-operative  creamery,  to 
breed  corn  and  other  field  crops,  their  farms  being'  con- 
ducted individually,  the  breeding  of  the  corn  and  the 
sale  of  the  seed  corn  only  being  done  through  the  co- 
operative association.  They  are  beginning  to  taste  the 
fruits  of  dealing  in  very  large  numbers  of  individuals 
in  their  operation  in  corn-breeding  and  to  sense  the  fu- 
ture possibilities  of  federated  energies  in  a  large  busi- 
ness enterprise  devoted  to  purveying  the  projected  effi- 
ciency of  the  blood  of  a  relatively  few  germs  rigidly  se- 
lected and  highly  accredited  by  statistical  records  of 
performance.  They  are,  partly  unaware,  uncovering  a 
gold  niine.  Nature's  slow  processes  required  ages  to  ac- 
complish results  in  the  evolution  of  species.  These  men 
are  ready  to  incubate  the  plans,  organize  the  forces  and 
operate  the  enterprises  scientifically  to  evolve  new  val- 
ues with  a  new  rate  of  speed  heretofore  not  dreamed  of. 
If  these  men  can  approach  the  possibilities  of  the  op- 
portunities they  already  see  they  will  have  done  won- 
ders for  themselves  and  for  their  country,  and  newer 
and  greater  possibilities  will  continue-  to  rise  before 
them.  There  is  no  set  limit  in  the  artificial  evolution  of 
economic  forms  of  plants  and  animals.  The  lines  of 
improvement  are  well  nigh  numberless,  and  the  degree 
of  change  possible  to  secure  is  a  sufficient  reward  for 
every  intelligent  effort. 

Let  us  assume  that  one  of  these  men  is  not  only 
interested  in  handling  and  educating  horses,  but  is  gift- 
ed in  regard  to  horse  breeding,  and  that  the  company 
should  so  be  organised  as  to  make  him  manager  or  di- 
rector of  breeding  Percheron  horses  for  all  the  farms 
which  are  managed  by  the  separate  owners.  There 
would  necessarily  be  the  preliminary  period  of  his  go- 
ing to  the  fairs  to  be  associated  with  show  judge's,  at- 
tending sales  in  large  cities  to  learn  the  wants  and  the 
philosophies    of  the    markets,  of    visiting   breeders  at 


148  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

home  and  al^ioad  to  get  their  ideas  and  to  know  their 
stock,  of  studying  pedigrees  and  family  values,  of 
learning  where  the  horses  are  to  be  found  which  would 
have  greatest  permanent  value  in  the  new  stud,  what 
prices  to  pay,  liow  to  buy,  transport  and  how  to  care 
for,  breed  and  develop  the  animals,  once  foundation 
stock  should  have  been  vsecured. 

The  farm  work  on  25,000  acres  under  rotation — 
growing  especially  bred  seed  corn,  seed  grain,  grass 
seed  and  clover  seed — -would  surely  need  400  mares  to 
do  it — one  for  each  40  acres  of  land  under  plow.  It 
would  be  neither  practicable  nor  wise  to  stock  up  with 
so  many  mares  at  first,  but  the  100  mares,  more  or 
less,  which  might  be  collected  at  the  start  could  be 
chosen  from  among  the  best  Percherons  in  America 
and  Europe,  and  to  go  with  them  a  number  of  stallions, 
we  will  assume  twenty,  should  be  purchased.  The 
mares  could  be  divided  into  twenty  groups  of  five  or 
more  each  and  placed  upon  separate  farms  or  merely 
recorded  separately,  and  one  stallion  could  be  bred  to 
each  lot.  The  stallion  is  "half  the  herd,"  and  stallions 
should  become  foundation  individuals.  As  a  stallion's 
blood  can  be  multipled  from  fifty  to  200  times  as  fast 
as  a  mare's  the  females  are  especially  useful  to  get 
the  centgener  values  of  the  stallions,  and  incidentally  to 
give  their  own  centgener  values  and  to  serve  as  foun- 
dation mothers. 

The  second  year  the  stallions  could  be  shifted,  as 
by  shifting  the  stallion  with  the  first  group  of  mares  to 
be  with  the  second  group,  the  one  with  the  second  to 
the  third  group  and  so  on  to  the  tenth,  if  there  were  ten 
stallions  on  ten  farms  which  would  go  to  the  first  group. 
Each  year  a  similar  shift  should'  be  made.  In  three 
to  five  years,  possibly  sooner,  the  colts  of  certain  stal- 
lions would  show  their  sires'  superior  breeding  values, 
and  in  other  cases  the  progeny  would  warrant  discard- 
ing some  of  the  sires  used.  In  place  of  some  or  all  of 
these  discarded  stallions  other  purchases  could  be 
introduced.    As  the  years  passed  the  tabulated  records, 


Breeding  Funk  Percherons.  149. 

showing  measures  of  centgener  values  of  stallions, 
would  begin  to  designate  certain  horses  as  of  very  pe- 
culiar merit  as  breeders.  The  records  capable  of  being 
averaged  so  as  to  give  the  centgener  values  of  the 
mares  would  accumulate  much  more  slowly.  But  in 
eight  or  ten  years  there  would  be  accumulated  data  of  a 
sufficient  number  of  colts  from  each  mare  bred  to  a  cer- 
tain group  of  sires  that  could  be  compared  with  a  sim- 
ilar number  of  colts  from  each  other  mare  bred  to  sires 
by  years  respectively,  thus  giving  the  breeding  values 
^)f  each  mare  in  the  terms  of  her  average  progeny. 

The  first  available  evidences  of  strong  breeding 
powers  would  come  in  the  side  of  the  males.  As  soon 
as  really  superior  male  blood  should  be  found  at  hand 
the  full  complement  of  mares  to  stock  all  the  farms 
might  be  secured  and  the  blood  of  the  superior  sire 
used  on  them,  possibly  utilizing  the  multiple  impreg- 
nation scheme  where  necessary  and  reasonable.  Soon 
there  would  arise  young  stallions  and  females  having 
blood  lines  proved  especially  efficient.  These  and  the 
best  foundation  stallions  and  mares  would  take  prom- 
inent place  on  all  the  farms.  The  mares  and  stallions 
of  second  quality,  and  the  young  things  with  blood  lines 
less  emphasized  by  the  statistical  pedigrees  would  sell 
well,  because  they  were  all  selected  originally  with  un- 
usual care  from  among  the  best  studs.  Whether  in- 
breeding would  do  serious  harm  or  would  prove  harm- 
ful only  in  certain  families  may  be  a  mooted  question  in 
breeding  Percherons,  but  it  would  be  better  to  be  safe 
and  not  base  these  Percherons  on  too  narrow  a  founda- 
tion, that  is,  not  on  too  few  foundation  parents.  The 
blood  of  at  least  the  best  three  to  five  sires  and  the  best 
HvQ  to  ten  dams  should  probably  be  retained  in  the 
foundation  group  of  parent  blood  lines.  Complete  rec- 
ords with  the  demonstrated  values  worked  out  for  each 
individual,-  would  in  time  show  whether  close  breeding 
causes  injuries.  But  whether  closely  bred  or  out- 
crossed,  the  blood  of  those  animals  making  the  best 
showing  imder  statisically  kept  facts  would  eventually 


ISO  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

be  chosen  and  the  blood  of  the  one  best  parent  or  of 
a  group  of  those  breeding  strongest  would  prevail. 
Breeding  Percherons  on  a  large  scale  on  these  farms 
would  not  injure  the  business  of  Percheron  breeding 
elsewhere.  It  would  emphasize  the  breed,^  furnish 
stallions  highly  accredited  in  centgener  breeding  val- 
ue and  would  otherwise  aid  in  •  placing  draft  horse 
breeding  on  a  permanent  basis. 

An  occasional  large  country  estate  instead  of  only 
farms  of  i6o  acres  might  liave  a  good  excuse  for  its 
existence  if  its  owners  would  make  it  serve  the  general 
welfare.  The  large  farm  has  great  advantages  in  breed- 
ing operations,  because  large  numbers  can  be  used.  The 
Continental  German  Coach  Horse  Co.  of  South  Da- 
kota, for  example,  with  3,500  head  of  pure-bred  and 
grade  German  Coach  horses  on  its  ranch  could  soon 
outdo  the  Germans  in  producing  high-priced  stallions 
of  this  breed  as  well  as  make  much  money  out  of 
matched  teams  and  single  drivers  for  the  wealthiest 
city  customers.  The  large  number  of  stallions  this 
company  requires  would  soon  enable  the  owners  to  se- 
lect those  whose  get  averages  a  large  number  of  high- 
priced  individuals.  The  necessary  system  for  marking 
the  sires  and  the  dams,  for  recording  the  values  of  the 
progeny  of  each  parent,  and  for  averaging  so  as  to  se- 
cure the  relative  breeding  values  of  each  parent  could 
be  worked  out  much  easier  than  might  seem.  The 
stallion  placed  on  the  ranch  with  his  consorts  retains  his 
harem  (or  bunch  of  mares)  and  defends  it  against  all 
interference  during  the  season.  Such  careful  records 
would  pay  on  a  ranch  of  this  size  simply  for  the  larger 
number  of  high-priced  drivers  which  would  be  pro- 
duced, and  the  possible  sale  of  breeding  animals  at  long 
figures  would  be  added  clear  profit. 

Graduates  of  the  right  kind  of  a  breeding  school 
would  be  valuable  employes  of  a  firm  with  the  possibil- 
ities of  such  a  business.  Records  of  the  breeding  of 
bronchos  may  seem  a  little  far  fetched,  but  who  has 
such  a  rich  opportunity  for  high-class  breeding  as  the 


Breeding  Funk  Percherons,  151 

cattle,  sheep  or  horse  ranchman  who  has  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  animals  under  his  command  ?  Es- 
pecially where  the  ranchman  has  a  part  of  his  range 
fenced  and  possibly  supplied  with  buildings  and  pad- 
docks can  he  control  the  breeding  of  his  choicest  ani- 
mals, kept  separately  during  the  rutting  season  and  the 
season  of  giving  birth  to  their  young.  Our  ranchmen 
have  not  had  a  knowledge  of  how  easily  and  practically 
to  keep  track  of  their  blood  lines.  Would  not  expe- 
rience put  them  in  possession  of  the  necessary  simple 
plans  ? 

Not  one,  but  a  number,  of  co-operative  firms  are 
needed  to  improve  the  Percheron  breed;  and  each  of 
the  other  draft  breeds  in  like  manner  would  serve  as 
a  magnificent  foundation  with  which  similar  firms 
or  associations  could  make  profits.  Profits  in  these  un- 
dertakings will  not  accrue  the  first  or  the  next  year,  as 
in  importing  the  best  from  a  county  or  a  province  in 
Europe,  but  eventually  the  money  returns  and  the  satis- 
faction of  having  thus  created  new  wealth  and  of  hav- 
ing artistically  built  up  new  forms  of  beauty  as 
well  as  of  intrinsic  value  should  be  incomparably 
greater.  We  need  a  class  of  brush  artists  to  paint  the 
beautiful  and  optimistic  sides  of  our  American  country 
life,  word  painters  to  portray  the  strong  and  delightfu! 
features  of  our  farm  homes,  and  we  need  more  breeders, 
of  the  highest  art  and  broadest  scientific  sense  to  build 
up  beautiful  and  useful  forms  of  horses  and  other  ani-- 
mals. 

But  in  breeding  draft  horses  we  must  count  days' 
work  in  the  lives  of  the  family  of  horses  as  the  first 
consideration.  The  qualities  discernible  in  the  judging 
ring  are  very  valuable  indices  of  quality  and  even 
of  breeding  value,  but  if  each  horse  of  a  highly  accred- 
ited family  could  be  marked  as  by  tattooing  inside  the 
ear  and  if  his  yearly  records  could  be  returned  to  an 
official  recorder,  real  life-time  values  would  be  made 
available.  The  ^States  or  the  United  States  Government 
could  well  afford  to  exoeriment  to  see  if  such  records 


152  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

kept  under  the 'auspices  of  experiment  stations  or 
by  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture 
could  not  be  made  a  practical  aid  in  breeding 
draft  horses.  A  family  of  horses  which  could 
show  for  a  goodly  numbed  of  its  members  a  high 
yearly  average  of  days'  works  through  long  life  on  the 
pavements  of  large  cities,  in  "the  woods"  or  on  farms 
would  have  another  record  of  performances  to  aid 
breeders  to  secure  a  wider  market  for  good  blood. 
Once  we  have  more  records  of  real  merit  mere  talk 
will  not  ''sell  stallion  beef  at  a  dollar  a  pound/'  too 
often  regardless  of  real  quality. 

No   doubt   some   of   the   records   of   intrinsic   value 
cannot  be  secured,  as  the  expense  will  be  too  great 
or  the  avenues  through  which  the   data  must  be  se- 
cured   would   not   be    reliable.      But    investigation    as 
carefully   and   intelligently   conducted   as   is   given   to 
better  methods  than  the  present  plan  of  importing  from 
other   agricultural   problems   will    certainly    result    in 
Europe,  where  breeding  is  carried  on  not  very  system- 
atically.    While   inventors   are   devising  new  locomo- 
tives, automobiles,  autocycles,  bicycles  and  airships,  and 
the  public  is  paying  vast  royalties  on  these  mechanical 
motors,  should  those  interested  in  the  horse  fall  short  of 
bringing  into  use  every  possible  device  in  science  or  art 
to  improve  man's  noblest  beast,  the  horse,  which  helps 
man  to  subdue  the  earth  and  has  a  place  in  our  houses 
and  in  our  hearts  ?     The  call  is  rising  for  as  strenuous 
improvements  in  our  control  of  living  matter  as  over 
the  non-living  mattJer.  Our  scientists  are  ready  to  escape 
from  studying  dried  specimens  of  plants  and  mummified 
advance  from  mere  growers  of  European  breeds  and 
all  unite  in  making  America  the  great  world-center  of 
creating  new  values  in  families,  in  breeds  and  even  in 
the  new  species  of  both  plants  and  animals.     A  gener- 
ation or  two  from  now  the  problem    will    not    seem  to 


Breeding  Funk  Percherons.  153 

have  been  a  very  difficult  one.  Only  to  overcome  onr 
conservatism  and  to  allow  the  billions  of  dollars  at 
stake  to  lead  us  into  the  work  thoughtfully  and  energet- 
ically is  difficult.  Let  the  will  command  and  the  way 
will  be  fcimd. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

INTRODUCING  ANIMALS  FROM   FOREIGN  COUNTRIES. 

The  multiplication  of  breeds  in  the  British  Islands 
suited  to  the  different  conditions  of  climate,  soil  and 
people  of  these  small  islands,  serves  to  show  the  neces- 
sity for  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  subject  of 
breeds  suited  to  each  region  in  a  great  continental 
country.  The  adaptation  of  grains,  grasses,  clovers,  and 
especially  of  fruits,  vegetables  and  flowers  to  each 
soil  in  every  climate,  and  even  to  the  artificial  soils 
and  climates  under  glass,  illustrates  the  complexities 
-and  possibilities  of  the  entire  subject  of  suiting  the 
varieties  to  the  conditions  of  each  locality. 

The  idea  being  urged  by  Mr.  W.  T.  Swingle,  the 
great  "suggestor"  of  the  National  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, that  life  history  studies  be  made  of  every 
species  of  plants  and  animals,  is  entirely  to  the 
point.  Under  these  .  plans  men  would  be  detailed 
by  the  National  Departiment  to  study  each  economic 
species  wherever  it  may  be  scattered  throughout  the 
earth.  Their  life  history  as  species,  their  habits  and 
adaptabilities,  their  uses  and  weak  points,  their  varia- 
tion and  adaptation  to  various  climates  and  uses  would 
be  studied  in  relation  to  every  condition  of  climate, 
soil  and  market  needs.  The  possibilities  which  might 
come  from  breeding  them  pure  or  from  hybridizing 
different  species,  varieties  or  breeds  would  also  be  stud- 
ied. Thus  w^.  need  men  who  know  the  wheat  species 
in  all  its  characteristics  and  habits.  Others  are  needed 
who  know  alfalfa  in  all  climes  and  who  will  suggest 
experiments  to  local  investigators,  and  thus  set  in  mo- 
tion the  necessary  research  to  secure  better  yielding 
hardier  disease-resistant  forms,  and  alkali-resistant 
strains,  to  fit  every  cultivated  area,  whether  in  a  tropi- 


Introducing  Animals  From  Foreign  Countries.  155 

cal  or  in  a  temperate  or  cold-temperate  region  where 
other  field  crops  are  grown.  Men  are  needed  who 
know  the  whole  range  of  sheep  life,  the  regions  to 
which  each  form  is  suited;  the  possibilities  of  hybrid- 
izing each  wild  and  cultivated  form,  the  one  with  the 
other.  Possibly  new  breeds  of  sheep  could  be  created 
10,  20,  or  even  50  per  cent  better  for  some  of  our  condi- 
tions than  those  now  available.  All  will  admit  that 
most  of  the  greatly  enlarged  efforts  should  be  used 
in  improving  these  best  breeds  which  are  already  im- 
proved. But  there  may  be  new  realms  of  effort  and  no 
one  has  sufficiently  explored  the  field  to  know  their 
limits. 

When  Prof.  Hansen  of  South  Dakota,  the  first  ex- 
plorer sent  out  regularly  by  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  returned  from  his  quest  in  Asia 
for  hardy  fruits  he  blocked  out  some  new  work.  His 
hardy  Turkestan  alfalfa  importations  set  the  North 
seeking  other  hardy  forms  of  this  species,  with  which 
to  bring  this  most  valuable  forage  plant  into  the  Corn- 
belt  and  even  carry  it  far  to  the  Northward,  Eastward 
and  Southward.  It  helped  to  infuse  new  hope  in  those 
who  were  trying  to  push  the  Northern  zone  of  the 
Corn-belt  farther  North.  It  made  us  look  with  new 
admiration  on  the  rapidity  with  which  our  horticultural 
friends  are  pushing  the  apple  further  toward  the  north 
frigid  zone."  Prof.  Hansen  saw  that  the  macaroni 
wheats  had  pushed  out  farther  into  the  arid  zones  of 
Asia  than  had  the  bread  wheats  and  on  his  return 
urged  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  to  arrange  for  their 
importation.  His  faith  has  already  resulted  in  a  10,- 
000,000-bushel  crop  of  this  wheat  in  America's  "short 
grass  country."  Though  not  an  animal  specialist  he 
saw  forms  of  domestic  animal  life  which  he  urged 
should  be  studied  and  possibly  introduced  with  a  view 
to  their  improvement  and  use  here,  and  possibly 
to  hybridizing  them  with  our  improved  kinds.  The 
fat-tailed  sheep,  he  has  repeatedly  urged,   should  be 


1  ^6  Breeding;  Plants  and  Animals, 


^ 


studied   and    imported    and    possibly    hybridized    with 
some  of  our  improved  breeds. 

There  is  not  nearly  enough  work  done  on  improv- 
ing the  breeds  which  originally  came  to  us  from  Eu- 
rope, and  the  total  expenditure  and  effort  in  this  line 
should  be  greatly  increased.  But  while  making  im- 
provements in  the  European  sheep  blood,  should  we 
not  spend  enough  labor  and  money  on  the  Asiatic  blood 
to  at  least  see  if  it  has  elements  of  efficiency  which 
could  be  woven  into  our  sheep  industry?  Likewise 
the  Asiatic  races  of  cattle  may  have  in  them  elements 
which  might  correct  some  of  the  palpable  weaknesses 
of  our  West  European  cattle.  We  might  possibly  fitid 
infusions  of  blood  which  would  enable  us  to  breed 
types  resistant  to  tuberculosis,  blackleg,  to  Texas  fever 
and  to  milk-fever.  What  a  blessing  to  the  great  hog 
regions  would  be  an  infusion  of  hog  blood  which  would 
resist  or  better  resist  cholera  and  plague.  The  many 
millions  of  loss  would  justify  a  search  for  such  blood. 
Mr.  D.  G.  Fairchild,  the  regular  agricultural  ex- 
plorer of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  took  up  in  a 
systematic  way  the  study  of  climatic  and  plant  relation- 
vships  of  the  world.  Owing  to  a  remarkable  friendship 
forming  between  Mr.  Fairchild  and  Mr.  Lothrop,  Chi- 
cago, the  latter  paid  their  combined  traveling  expenses 
for  some  years  in  making  trips  about  the  world  and 
through  nearly  ail  of  the  important  countries.  The 
Department  of  Agriculture  paid  only  Mr.  Fairchild's 
salary  and  the  freight  on  the  seeds  and  plants  forward- 
ed "to  be  distributed  through  the  Office  of  Seed  and 
llant  Introduction  at  Washington.  In  making  these 
tours  Mr.  Fairchild  not  only  learned  of  climates,  plants 
and  peoples  but  also  has  made  a  preliminary  survey  of 
the  animals  which  might  be  of  interest  in  improving 
our  domestic  races.  At  the  recent  meeting  of  the  Amer- 
ican Breeders'  Association  in  St.  Louis  he  called  atten- 
tion to  the  adaptability  of  Sind  cattle  to  dairy  pur- 
poses in  very  warm  regions,  while  the  monstrous  Matas 
breed  on  the  River  Plata  might  be  of  value  in  parts  of 


Introducing  Animals  From  Foreign  Countries,     157 

our  country,  at  least  to  hybridize  with  our  stock.  I-Ie 
suggests  that  some  of  the  water  buffalo  might  find  a 
place  of  utility  in  some  of  our  Gulf  States  or  in  some 
of  our  island  possessions.  He  mentioned  the  availability 
of  zebras  as  well  as  the  donkey  as  a  source  of  blood 
which  rniglit  advantageously  be  mixed  with  the  horse. 

Who  knows  but  that  by  mixing  togethe!"  the  blood  of 
some  zebra,  the  donkey  and  the  horse  that  a  triple  hy- 
brid might  be  produced  which  would  form  a  fertile 
race  of  mules  ^  If  the  admixture  of  some  zebra  blood 
would  thus  niake  fertile  our  mules  it  is  possible  that 
we  might  develop  a  breed  with  feet  and  limbs  as  tough 
as  those  of  the  mule,  with  as  heavy  weight  as  the  draft 
horse,  with  great  longevity,  with  small  food  require- 
ments and  even  superior  in  docility  and  intelligence. 
Some  results  in  plant-breeding  suggest  that  such  an 
achievement  might  be  possible. 

Mr.  Fairchild  suggests  the  wisdom  of  at  least  study- 
ing the  sheep  of  Tripoli  and  the  milch  sheep  of  Malta. 
Even  if  used  only  to  increase  the  yield  of  milk  in  breeds 
designed  for  producing  baby  mutton  they  might  be 
useful.  This  subject  has  been  viewed  mainly  by  plant 
men,  except  in  Western  Europe.  The  plant  ex- 
plorers have  learned  what  are  the  possibilities  in  in- 
troducing new  crops,  and  they  all  agree  that  animal 
introduction,  though  a  far  different  proposition  than 
plant  introduction  is  very  important.  The  number  of 
available  forms  is  less,  though  there  are  more  than  fifty 
breeds  of  cattle  in  the  world,  and  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  kinds  of  horses,  asses  and  zebras  are  known. 
The  swine  types  have  not  been  brought  into  use,  while 
there  seems  to  have  been  no  very  thorough  work  in 
introducing  goats  into  regions  new  to  them,  but  where 
they  might  prove  very  useful,  either  to  be  improved 
in  their  pure  forms  or  to  serve  as  basic  blood  in  mak- 
ing hybrid  breeds.  Dr.  Kuhn,  President  of  the  Agricul- 
tural College  at  Halle,  Germany,  the  Zoological  Gar- 
dens at  London  and  other  institutions  and  private  per- 
sons in  various  parts  of  the  world  are  experimenting  on 


1 58  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

hybridizing  related  species  of  animals.  Prof.  Cossar 
Ewart's  work  near  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  with  zebra- 
horse  hybrids,  Mr.  Goodknight  at  Texas,  Tex.,  with 
buffalo-cattle  hybrids,  which  he  calls  catalo,  are  ex- 
amples. Mr.  Goodknight  has  a  catalo  bull  seven-eighths 
Jersey  which  he  washes  some  interested  institution  or 
person  would  use  on  Jersey  cows  to  study  the  effect  of 
a  small  portion  of  this  blood  in  a  milk  strain. 

Mr.  J.  J.  Hill,  of  St.  Paul,  has  started  a  splendid 
line  of  investigations  with  cattle-bufifalo  hybrids  on  his 
farm  near  St.  Paul^  Minn. 

These  experiments  are  of  interest  in  determining 
whether  different  species  will  produce  fertile  and 
vigorous  hybrids,  but  they  are  not  in  the  realm  of  the 
work  of  the  practical  breeder.  His  life  is  too  short, 
his  interest  too  fleeting.  But  the  State  or  the  Nation, 
representing  the  interests  of  the  race,  ''will  live  after 
we  are  a  long  time  dead.''  It  is  more  than  probable 
the  experience  already  at  hand  from  animal-breeding 
and  especially  from  plant-breeding  would  enable  men 
to  devise  problems  and  methods  which  would  be  well 
worth  the  while  for  the  State  or  National  Government 
to  follow.  The  United  States  produces  nearly  two  bill- 
ions of  dollars  worth  of  animal  products  annually. 
There  is  certainly  a  profit  on  this  product  of  10  per 
cent,  or  $200,000,000.  One  part  in  10,000,  one-one- 
hundred  of  I  per  cent  of  the  total  production  is 
$200,000.  The  use  of  this  sum,  or  even  ten  times  this 
sum,  would  be  justifiable  if  it  would  add  another  10 
per  cent  to  the  profits.  In  fact,  there  is  now,  doubtless, 
more  than  $200,000,000  spent  annually  by  private 
persons  in  animal  breeding.  But  a  large  part  of  this 
experimenting  is  done  in  a  poor  way  and  tihe  results  are 
relatively  meager,  both  to  the  individual  conducting  the 
experiment  and  to  the  world  at  large.  National,  State 
and  co-operative  organizations  could  better  conduct  the 
experiments. 

The  practical  grower  of  pedigreed  stock  and  the 
producer  of  live  stock  products  want  live  stock  blood 


Introducing  Animals  From  Foreign  Countries.    159 

upon  which  they  can  depend.     They  have  neither  the 
large  numbers,  the  skill  nor  the  facilities  for  adequate 
experiments    to    create    new    values  in    breeds.      The 
splendid  results  in  breed  formation  and  in  breed  im- 
provement already  achieved  have  been  most  wonderful, 
but  hardly  up  to  the  rapid  pace  being  set  by  the  other 
lines  of  improvement  in  the  world's  affairs.     Experi- 
ments wisely  conducted  in  this  line  will  relieve  private 
persons  from  undertaking  so  much  expenditure,  as  in 
many  other  lines  taken  up  by  the  experiment  stations 
supported  by  public  funds.     But  the  main  reason  for 
the  co-operation  of  the  Nation  and  the  State  is  the  far 
more  rapid  improvement  made  possible.     The  figures 
suggested  for  public  expenditure  may  seem  high,  but 
our  present  live  stock  blood  does  not  average  very  high 
in  value.      The   case   seems  to  be  parallel   with   plant 
improvement  in  most  ways.     The  expence  is  far  great- 
er with  a  given  species  or  a  given  hybrid,  but  the  num- 
ber of  new  species  and  the  number  of  possible  hybrids 
are  far  less.     The  plant  products  are  two-fifths  larger 
in  value,  and  since  there  is  such  a  diversity  of  forms 
and  more  need  of  closely  adapting  plants  to  each  lo- 
cal region,  it  is  quite  probable  that  the  aggregate  cost 
of  plant  improvement  will  prove  greater  than  in  an- 
imal improvement.     The  magnitude  of  the  enterprise 
need  not  deter  a  nation  which  can  support  such  large 
affairs  as  our  postal  system,  our  merged  railways,  our 
steel  combines,  our  political  parties  or  our  federations 
of  women.    The  time  seem.s  more  nearly  ripe  for  great 
merged  farmers'  enterprises  than  earlier,  when  the  dan- 
gers such  organizations   encounter  when  they  try  to 
mix  business,  manufacture  and  politics  had  not  been 
discovered.     In  some  States  the  federated  farmers'  or- 
ganizations  have   already   made   successful    combined 
movements  to  better  finance  agricultural  research  and 
education.     But  such  a  long-time 'proposition  as  breed- 
ing animals  or  even  plants  must  have  those  largest  fed- 
erations, the  States  and  the  United  States,  to  support 


1 6c  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

it.  The  sudden  awakening  of  our  nation  to  a  world 
relationship,  a  world  leadership,  has  done  away  with 
the  old  cry  against  a  strong  central  Goverment.  All 
now  look  to  Washington  and  want  there  the  strong 
hand  mightily  clad  with  power  to  deal  with  the  exter- 
ior and  with  any  threatening  power  within  that  the 
National  influence  may  work  out  its  full  destiny.  A 
powerful  central  Government  can  not  only  wield  a 
powerful  army,  but  it  can  take  up  large  questions  of 
internal  policy,  policies  for  the  future  as  well  as  for 
the  present.  Under  President  Roosevelt,  aided  by 
such  strong  men  as  Secretaries  Wilson  and  Hay,  and 
GiiTord  Pinchot  and  others,  a  National  forestry  policy 
is  being  actually  inaugurated;  the  most  stupendous 
irrigation  enterprise  ever  conceived  is  being  put  into 
successful  operation;  the  long-desired  Panama  canal 
is  about  to  be  dug;  but  greatest  of  all. are  our  diplo- 
matic achievements.  Our  annual  forestry  products  at 
their  highest  point  represent  only  $109,000,000  or  6  per 
cent  of  our  annual  animal  products,  3^et  a  few  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars  spent  annually  in  forest  pro- 
tection and  improvements  is  not  too  much,  it  is  modest. 
The  splendid  relations  being  worked  out  between 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  some  of  the  State 
experiment  stations  in  plant-breeding  suggest  a  sim- 
ilar arrangement  in  animal-breeding.  The  great  temp- 
tation in  National  affairs  is  to  be  paternal  rather  than 
co-operative,  as  is  shown  by  the  distribution  of  free 
seeds.  The  Government  giving  free  seeds  or  free  pure- 
bred animals  destroys  the  initiative  of  private  business. 
Breeders' of  pedigreed  animals  should  consider  with 
care  any  scheme  for  supplying  free  to  producers  of  live 
stock  products,  or  even  to  growers  of  pedigreed  stock, 
animals  to  head  their  herds.  Experiment  with  seeds 
have  demonstrated  that  the  more  proper  function  of 
the  Nation  or  State  is  to  create  new  values,  thoroughly 
prove  them,  and  then  launch  them  at  their  full  value 
upon  the  commercial  field  for  the  production  of  pedi- 
greed and  highly  accredited  blood.    Thus  a  new  wheats 


Infrodftcing  Animals  From  Foreign  Countries.     i6i 

the  performance  record  of  which  showed  high  value^ 
was  sold  by  the  Minnesota  and  North  Dakota  Experi- 
ment Stations  at  a  high  price  to  many  seed  growers 
and  dealers.  This  sale  established  a  high  price  for  seed 
of  this  variety  and  it  is  now  being  distributed  by  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  bushels  of  seed  by  the  men  who 
find  profit  in  growling  it  for  seed.  This  variety  is  being 
thus  brought  into  use  far  more  widely  than  if  the  Min- 
nesota and  North  Dakota  stations  had  injured  it  with 
the  faint  praise  of  free  distribution.  Superior  breeding 
animals,  as  wheat,  must  be  accredited  by  sale  at  their 
real  value,  which  means  high  prices.  President  Jas.  J. 
Hill  of  the  Great  Northern  Railway  gave  away  hun- 
dreds of  superior  bulls  and  boars  to  the  farmers  along 
his  railroad.  When  he  takes  an  invoice  of  the  resulting 
improvement  he  loses  faith  both  in  those  receiving  gifts 
and  in  the  efficiency  of  a  system  of  free  gifts  of  breed- 
ing animals.  Many  of  the  animals  were  killed  for  meat 
long  before  they  were  used  their  allotted  time.  Organ- 
ization— profits  that  pay  for  skill,  for  advertising  and 
for  hustling,  is  necessary  in  breeding  either  plants  or 
animals.  A  county  in  Dakota  has  recently  begun  to 
supply  males  to  the  farmers  free  of  cost.  It  seems  easy 
to  predict  that  the  same  amount  of  money  used  to  help 
an  association :  to  secure,  improve,  accredit  and  exploit 
county  families  of  the  best  pedigreed  breeds  would  pay 
better  in  the  end.  Possibly  the  Nation  must  lead  out  in 
forming  a  plan  for  better  arranging  the  promo^tion  of 
breeding  by  the  use  of  public  funds. 

At  present  the  immediate  need  is  to  induce  the  peo- 
ple to  learn  of  and  to  adopt  the  best  blood  of  the  pedi- 
greed breeds  we  now  have.  The  Nation  is  losing  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  dollars  by  using  scrub  stock.  Our 
methods  of  accrediting  our  best  animals  so  that  farm- 
ers will  discard  scrubs  and  low  grades  are  weak.  We 
need  a  thorough  shaking  up.  More  agencies  should  be 
put  into  operation  to  show  the  .growers  of  live  stock 
products  what  are  the  best  available  blood  lines  for 
each  farm  and  to  show  them  the  greater  profits  in  using 


1 62  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

them.  These  articles  are  urging  different  ways  of  get- 
ting at  the  improvement  of  Hve  stock  largely  that  breed- 
ers may  have  better  methods  of  accrediting  their  ani- 
mals in  the  minds  of  the  farmers  who  ought  to  use  the 
improved  blood.  Statistical  evidence  of  real  values 
would  help  to  sell  what  we  now  have  to  offer.  More 
shows,  more  interest  in  sales,  more  subscriptions  to 
breeders'  periodicals,  more  judging  schools,  more 
teaching  of  the  principles  of  breeding  in  our  colleges 
and  more  Government  and  State  support  are  needed 
all  along  the  line. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


EDUCATION   IN   BREEDING. 


The  literature  of  breeding  is  from  the  practical 
standpoint  of  today  in  a  backward  and  unsatisfactory 
state.  The  academic  texts  on  breeding  used  in  our 
agricultural  schools  are  ill  adapted  to  their  purpose. 
Their  body  of  thought  is  not  along  lines  which  would 
benefit  the  breeder  or  experimenter  and  is  weak  or  to 
say  the  least  misleading.  They  have  been  conveying 
the  idea  that  upon  completing  a  theoretical  course  of 
study  in  the  curriculum,  they  had  mastered  the  very 
complex,  abstruse  and  mysterious  subject  of  breeding. 
In  this  respect  they  suggest  the  effort  to  "learn  Greek 
in  six  easy  lessons."  In  this  way  too  many  minds 
which  might  have  given  an  impulse  to  original  thought 
and  investigation  have  been  lulled  into  a  beautiful  and 
satisfied  repose.  As  a  nation  of  wonderfully  progres- 
sive people  we  have  been  doing  little  in  working  out 
the  facts  and.  philosophies  of  this  subject. 

Charles  Darwin  made  a  grand  stride  forward  in  the 
theories  of  breeding.  His  main  contention,  however, 
that  natural  evolution  has  been  the  means  of  develop- 
ing plants  and  animals  up  to  their  present  estate  so 
overshadowed  in  his  own  mind  and  in  the  contentious 
thought  of  the  times  any  practical  economic  application 
of  his  facts  and  theories  that  the  full  power  of  his  sug- 
gestive findings  has  been  largely  dormant.  The  lesser 
contemporaneous  and  subsequent  lights  in  the  discus- 
sion of  heredity  have  liovered  about,  fought  over,  inter- 
preted and  misinterpreted  Darwin's  great  work.  They 
have  proved  his  main  theory  ten  thousand  times,  and 
have  become  "chesty"  when  they  have  discovered  that 
some  of  his  statements  of  facts  have  been  only  partial 
statements  or  that  some  of  his  theories  on  lesser  points 


164  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

have  been  erroneous.  Scientists  have  too  often  chmg  to 
the  tail  of  Darwin's  comet  and  thought  they  were  mak- 
ing marked  advancement  when  w^orking  on  some  mat- 
ter of  very  small  consequence.  Some  minds  have  been 
most  satisfied  when  working  out  the  exact  contour 
of  the  last  studied  of  the  many  minute  knots  or  depres- 
sions on  the  surface  of  the  bones  of  some  fish,  fowl  or 
quadruped.  The  heads  of  some  of  our  great  university 
botanical  laboratories,  even  in  prairie  states,  have  been 
very  successful  in  instilling  into  their  students  a  burn- 
ing desire  to  devote  their  lives  to  the  study  of  small 
plants  in  salt  water,  called  deep  sea  algse.  The  fishes 
have  been  studied  minutely  in  our  geological  laborato- 
ries, the  non-economic  as  w^ell  as  the  economic  species. 
Doing  all  this  in  the  name  of  science  has  generally 
meant  in  the  nam.e  of  another  proof  that  Darwin  was 
correct  in  his  main  premises. 

Not  a  few  men  who  pose  as  broad-minded  think- 
ers disdain  the  practical  relations  of  science  as  below 
their  talents.  They  shrug  their  shoulders  and  say: 
"Oh,  I  am  w^orking  on  the  scientific  question/'.As  the 
science  ':-!  mechanics,  of  electricity  and  of  chemistry 
have  passed  beyond  this  contracted  phrase  in  the  minds 
of  their  devotees,  so  biology  is  about  ready  to  become 
a  creative  science.  As  the  sciences  relating  to  non- 
living matter  are  pushing  the  world  forward,  a  science 
of  living  forces  will  make  fast  advances  in  the  world's 
afifairs.  These  men  have  too  nearly  forgotten  that  the 
powers  of  heredity  which  Nature  used  slowly  to  mould 
fomis  into  higher  forms  might  be  subject  to  the  will 
of  man.  Darwin's  work  of  suggesting  that  man  could 
utilize  the  la^vs  of  life  or  breeding  in  rapidly  and  vastly 
improving  his  plants  and  animals  has  hardly  appealed 
to  these  men,  conservative  only  in  economic  relations. 
The  tijiie  has  come  for  workers  who  have  the  op- 
portunities and  responsibilities  of  biological  labora- 
tories to  study  the  laws  of  life  from  the  standpoint  of 
evolution  under  the  direcH;ion  of  man.  Their  work 
permeates  the  lesser    schools,    including    the    smaller 


Education  in  Breeding.  165 

colleges,  the  academies,  the  high  schools  and  even  the 
graded  and  country  schools.  The  assumption  of  these 
men  that  the  whole  interest  of  biological  science  is  in 
natural  evolution  is  more  than  stupid,  economically  it 
is  doing  a  downright  wrong  to  the  world.  It  is  not 
merely  shooting  over  the  people's  heads  with  what  is 
wrongly  assumed  to  be  higher  education ;  it  is  actually 
leading  to  the  theory  that  natural  evolution  is  educa- 
tionally now  and  henceforth  the  larger  of  the  two  parts 
of  this  question.  Instead  of  natural  evolution  being 
the  mam  interest,  we  can  now  assume  that  Darwin's 
theory  is  proved  and  proceed  to  make  use  of  the  laws 
and  possibilities  he  leads  us  to. 

The  scientists  and  the  practical  breeders  have  been 
far  apart  in  their  methods,  in  their  theories  and  in  their 
interests.  We  have  had  few  scientists  who  were 
studying  the  business  problems,  the  everyday  work  of 
breeding.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  had  very  few 
breeders  w^ho  were  deeply  interested  in  the  underlying 
science  of  enforced  evolution.  Once  scientists  come 
fully  to  realize  that  the  science  of  enforced  evolution 
is  the  most  fertile  field  for  scientific  exploitation  now 
open  they  will  be  eager  to  cultivate  it. 

The  methods  of  research  used  in  studying  natural 
evolution  cannot  be  generally  adopted.  New  methods 
must  be  devised.  The  crucible,  the  scalpel,  the  stain- 
ing fluid  and  the  microscope  will  be  relatively  less 
prominent.  Animals  and  plants  may  be  studied  in 
embryo.  The  study  of  the  cell,  called  cytology,  may  be 
highly  developed  and  may  give  us  some  facts  and  some 
methods  of  thought.  But  a  dozen  years'  effort  at 
theoretical  experimenting  with  paints  leads  me  to  say 
advisedly  that  the  facts,  the  theories  and  the  best  busi- 
ness principles  for  enforcing  evolution  will  be  jv^rought 
out  mainly  by  studying  mature  individuals.  These 
studies  must  be  broad,  statistical,  vast  numbers  must 
be  employed  and  long  periods  of  time  must  be  con- 
sumed.  The  sometimes  rapidly  reached  results  of  the 
physicist,  of  the  chemist  or  even  of  the  classifier  of 


"66  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

natural  forms,  must  not  be  expected.  That  type  of 
experimenter  is  here  needed  who  will  lay  out  definite 
problems,  devise  clearcut  methods,  change  wisely  as 
his  developing  results  warrant  and  expect  to  follow 
the  streams  of  heredity  through  the  blood  of  many 
generations  of  more  or  less  mobile  living  forms  or 
types  to  reach  desired  theoretical  results.  Often  the 
side  light  suddenly  appearing  will  have  far  wider  val- 
ue than  the  point  to  whiCh  the  experiment  was  directed. 
Thus,  as  stated  on  previous  pages,  in  studying  propor- 
tion of  wheat  which  is  self-pollinated  in  nature,  we 
found  a  method  of  planting  crops  in  the  breeding  nurs- 
ery by  machinery  and  were  thus  made  able  to  work 
out  many  things  of  theoretical  and  economic  import- 
ance not  before  found  practical  to  study. 

But  to  return  to  the  test  book,  to  the  philosophy  of 
breeding,  as  presented  in  our  schools  of  agriculture. 
Manly  iMiles  formulated  into  a  readable  text  the  facts 
and  tliecnes  amassed  by  Darwin.  J.  H.  Sanders,  Ueo. 
Curtis,  Wm.  Warfield,  Alvin  H.  Sanders,  John  A. 
Craig  and  Thos.  Shaw  have  each  added  substantially 
to  Miles'  w^ork,  while  L.  H.  Bailey  has  ably  written  on 
plant  breeding.  But  most  of  our  basic  theory  as  formu- 
lated by  Miles  has  not  been  greatly  improved. 

Animal  judging  at  the  fairs  and  especially  teaching 
animc^l-judging  at  the  shows  have  been  much  devel- 
oped. While  this  feature  is  none  too  prominent  it  is 
relatively  too  prominent  because  of  the  back- 
wardness of  the  general  theory  of  the  business 
of  breed  improvem.ent  and  breed  formation  which 
has  improved  relatively  little  since  Miles'  book 
was  written.  The  work  of  Sanders,  Goodwin  and 
others  in  word  pictures  of  show  animals,  and  of  herds 
offered  for  public  sale  is  art  of  high  order.  This  liter- 
ature has  been  a  potent  force  not  only  in  giving  prom- 
inence to  superior  animal:^  and  to  herds  v/hich  excel, 
but  in  j^  really  adding  to  the  growth  of  expertness'  in 
studving  animals  with  the  eye..  This  able  literature 
has  given  great  emphasis  to  the  superior  values  of  ped- 


Education  in  Breeding.  167 

igreed  stock  in  the  minds  of  those  who  have  been  for- 
tunate enough  to  read  it.  The  improvement  given  to 
good  stock  and  to  good  feeding  by  national,  state  and 
county  shows  of  stock  has  also  been  productive  of  much 
good.  The  high  average  excellence  of  imported  stock 
has  had  a  powerful  influence  both  in  bringing  supe- 
rior blood  and  by  setting  standards  which  breeders 
and  growers  try  to  attain. 

Lately  the  class  work  in  our  agricultural  colleges, 
the  special  courses  in  stock- judging  and  the  public  ad- 
dresses of  men  advantageously  situated  where  they  can 
learn  as  well  as  teach  have  begun  to  tell  in  a  very  large 
way.  Methods  of  judging  are  being  developed  that 
educate  the  judgment  of  stockmen  as  to  the  value  of 
animals  which  are  of  high  educational  value.  Principal 
D.  D.  Mayne,  of  the  Minnesota  Agricultural  High 
School,  recently  said  that  modern  methods  of  teaching 
the  judging  of  stock  and  corn  are  unsurpassed  in  their 
educational  features.  He  said :  "True  education  is 
mainly  the  education  of  the  judgment..  Here  is  a  line 
of  teaching  which  trains  the  judgment  at  every  turn.'* 
These  studies  have  another  very  great  advantage  over 
Latin  or  Greek  as  a  means  of  mental  culture.  The 
mind  once  quickened  to  the  forms,  the  values  and  the 
breeding  possibilities  of  animals  and  plants  are  not  sep- 
arated from  their  implements  of  study  as  soon  as  the 
text  books  are  laid  aside.  The  student  of  economic 
animal  and  plant  forms  reads  his  primer  and  first  read- 
er in  school  and  the  higher  books,  the  real  objects,  the 
animals  and  the  problems,  are  before  him  throughout 
his  career  as  a  breeder. 

Our  educational  fathers  made  a  great  mistake  in 
using  for  their  educational  machinery  too  large  a  pro- 
portion of  tools  which  are  not  used  in  the  business 
that  most  of  the  students  are  to  follow.  It  would  be 
wrong  to  try  to  educate  a  man  for  a  chair  in  Greek  by 
training  him  in  modern  horticulture,  irrigation,  farm 
machinery,  or  in  modern  architecture.  It  is  quite  as 
wrong  to  throw  away  too  much  time  and  expense  by 


i68  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

devoting  a  goodly  portion  of  the  time  of  a  school  for 
rural  pupils  in  teaching  Latin.  In  Ohio  I  faund  a 
rural  high  school  with  four  years  of  Latin  and  no  agri- 
culture or  home  economics.  How  much  better  would 
be  the  system  if  there  could  have  been  these  more  inter- 
esting as  well  as  more  valuable  studies  to  put  the  pupil 
in  closer  touch  with  the  things  of  his  or  her  country 
home  and  business?  Not  a  little  of  this  stock- judging 
and  study  of  enforced  evolution  may  be  brought  into 
even  the  consolidated  rural  schools.  These  schools  are 
bound  to  come — in  articulation  with  the  agricultural 
high  schools — and  the  whole  range  of  country  life  ed- 
ucation will  be  worked  out  along  the  line  of  technical 
education  for  farmers  and  farm  home-makers. 

The  great  educational  pyramid  built  up  for  devel- 
oping city  life  is  turning  more  and  more  to  the  practical 
in  education.  More  and  m.ore  are  the  teachers  learning 
to  see,  what  outsiders  first  see,  that  practical  matters 
of  nature  and  of  industry  may  finally  be  shaped  into 
pedagogical  tools  as  effective  as  any  during  the  school 
period  and  the  edges  of  which  remain  sharp  after  grad- 
uation. 

Some  practical  things  are  being  brought  into  the 
city  graded  schools,  which -are  at  the  base  of  the  city 
school  p}^ramid.  The  city  high  schools,  the  middle  of 
this  pyramid,  are  rapidly  developing  the  mechanic  arts 
and  other  technical  subjects  of  city  industry,  transpor- 
tation and  commerce.  These  schools  are  making  rapid 
progress  in  arranging  the  inexpensive  yet  effective  fa- 
cilities for  teaching  home  economics.  The  universities, 
at  the  apex  of  this  pyramid,  which  are  mainly  devoted 
to  preparing  men  and  women  for  city  life,  are  more  and 
more  becoming  technological  schools  for  the  profession- 
al and  technical  vocations  of  other  cities.  Their  educa- 
tional machinery  is  annually  becoming  more  and  moio 
the  materials  with  which  the  student  is  to  deal  in  his 
life  work.  ^  And  the  old-time  educators  who  said,  '*Ed- 
ucate  the  man  first  and  the  specialist  afterward,''  are 
being  laid  to  rest  with  their  fathers. 


Education  in  Breeding,  169 

The  new  educational  machinery  is  being  made 
more  effective  than  the  old  to  induce  mental  growth 
w^hile  in  school  and  has  the  additional  values  of  better 
continuing  this  growth  throughout  life,  and  is  more 
useful  also'  in  helping  to  produce  the  wherewith  not 
only  to  live  but  to  own  the  position  and  the  facilities 
for  continuing  the  education  throughout  life.  The 
classics  and  special  literary  training  have  become  in 
large  part  technical  specialties. 

Our  schools  to  build  up  country  life  need  also  to  be 
articulated  into  a  unified  system,  with  primary  and 
high  schools  at  the  base  and  the  middle  of  the  pyramid 
leading  by  natural  steps  to  the  agricultural  college  at 
the  apex.  As  nearly  50  years  ago  the  city  high  school 
began  its  conquest  for  the  field  of  secondary  life  educa- 
tion, crowding  out  the  academy  so  the  agricultural  high 
school  has  started  a  successful  conquest  for  the  field  of 
secondary  education  for  country  life.  The  first  of  these 
schools,  started  in  Minnesota  in  1888,  now  has  600  stu- 
dents. The  agricultural  colleges  of  North  Dakota  and 
Oklahoma  and  the  Universities  of  Nebraska  and  Maine 
have  successfully  inaugurated  similar  schools  as  parts 
of  their  organizations.  And  in  Alabama  an  agricultural 
high  school  has  been  started  in  each  congressional  dis- 
trict. 

It  seems  reasonable  to  hope  that  the  wonderfully 
successful  plan  of  consolidating  rural  schools  will  grad- 
ually become  general.  The  rural  school  of  three  to  six 
rooms  to  which  pupils  are  hauled  in  vans  from  the  larg- 
est practical  area — the  county  to  be  systematically  di- 
vided into  districts  four  to  five  miles  square — and  ex- 
tended through  the  second  high  school  year,  promises 
to  become  the  strong  base  of  the  new  pyramid.  Agri- 
cultural high  schools  each  serving  ten  or  more  counties 
in  which  the  pupils  are  supplied  their  junior  and  senior 
years  of  high  school  training  seem  best  adapted  to  sup- 
ply most  of  the  technical  portion  of  the  secondary 
school — the  so-called  people's  college.  The  agricultural 
college,    with    its    numerous    long,    short    and    special 


T/O  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

courses  is  developing  into  a  strong  apex  to  the  country 
life  school  pyramid. 

The  consolidated  rural  school  on  its  ten  acres  of 
demonstration  land,  with  its  cottage  for  the  principal, 
who  should  be  an  agricultural  graduate,  with  one  of  his 
helpers,  a  woman,  trained  in  teaching  home  economics : 
with  its  fields,  trees,  shrubs  -and  vegetable  gardens; 
with  its  rooms  for  practical  work  for  both  boys  and 
girls ;  with  its  location  in  a  neighborhood  which  may  be 
made  to  serve  as  a  great  laboratory  of  Nature  and  in- 
dustry, and  with  its  possibilities  in  the  way  of  traveling 
instructors  and  illustrated  lectures  ;  with  its  technical 
library  and  with  the  most  earnest  support  of  a  delighted 
and  improved  rural  community — with  all  these  things 
and  more,  the  consolidated  rural  school  will  furnish  fa- 
cilities for  some  education  in  agriculture  and  home 
economics  for  all  the  people. 

Primary  education  in  animal  improvement  can  here 
reach  everybody.  The  agricultural  high  school  with 
numbers  aggregating  thousands  and  even  tens  of  thou- 
sands in  a  state  will  be  able  to  reach  nearly  all  who  are 
to  be  our  breeders,  as  well  as  many  other  specialists  as 
horticulturists,  gardeners,  foresters  and  dairymen,  gen- 
eral farmers  and  homemakcrs.  As  shown  by  the  de- 
velopment in  Minnesota's  school,  these  secondary 
schools  of  agriculture  and  home  economics  are  devel- 
oping into  highly  organized  technical  institutions.  And 
as  the  years  go  on  the  technique  of  the  subject  of 
breeding  will  here  be  so  developed  that  many  students 
will  return  home  not  only  with  the  knowledge  but  with 
the  spirit  of  faith  which  will  lead  them  to  enter  the 
work  and  to  succeed  in  building  up  our  plants  and  ani- 
mals. 

The  agricultural  colleges,  with  their  experiment 
stations,  all  assisted  by  and  co-operating  with  the  great 
national  Department  of  Agriculture  will  continue  to  or- 
iginate a  technique  of  agriculture  and  home  economics 
which,  when  carried  to  a  system  of  consolidated  rural 
schools  and  agricultural  high  schools,  open  to  all  those 


Education  in  breeding.  lyi 

who  are  to  farm,  will  revolutionize  methods  all  along 
the  line.  Then  creative  breeding  wall  grow  into  a  sci- 
entific art  of  the  highest  order.  The  growing  of  pedi- 
greed stock  will  have  the  thought  and  daily  care  which 
will  produce  breeding  animals  of  greatly  improved  av- 
erage excellence.  And  the  producing  of  live  stock 
will  be  carried  on  by  a  race  trained  to  it  from  earliest 
childhood.  The  men  who  are  organizing  the  research 
work  and  the  pedagogics  of  animal  breeding  are  writ- 
ing on  virgin  pages  in  many  lines,  and  every  item 
which  has  the  merit  to  live  will  be  used  in  an  ever- 
widening  field.  America  must  have  technical  education 
in  live  stock,  general  agriculture  and  homemaking  that 
she  may  permanently  have  a  relatively  large  production 
of  value  per  acre  and  per  worker. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  IN  BREEDING. 

The  theoretical  problems  of  breeding  are  complex 
and  need  investigation,  demonstration,  illustration  and 
discussion.  The  different  theories  need  to  be  given 
their  relative  values  in  relation  to  practical  breeding,  to 
the  business  of  creating  new  values  and  bringing  them 
into  general  use.  Some  of  the  old  fogy  notions  too  of- 
ten given  undue  importance,  should  be  publicly  anal- 
yzed until  they  recede  to  their  proper  places  with  other 
outclassed  mxaterial.  Statistical  investigations  in  the 
theory  of  enforced  evolution  promise  to  clear  up  much 
that  is  now  seen  in  a  wrong  or  but  dim  light.  Experi- 
ence with  large  numbers  of  individuals  of  many  breeds 
of  varieties,  under  plans  for  producing  practical  values, 
will  give  many  men  more  practical  knowledge  of  the 
creative  work,  also  of  the  office  of  the  multiplier  of  new 
forms.  Practical  breeders  must  learn  that  there  is  ris- 
ing a  better  body  of  thought  on  the  underlying  theory 
of  heredity  and  practical  breeding.  Students  of  the 
theory  on  the  other  hand  must  realize  what  a  weak 
statement  it  is  now  possible  to  make  of  the  principles 
involved  in  effective  breeding  and  by  more  and  better 
research  improve  the  forms  of  statement  for  text  books. 

Every  student  of  practical  breeding  who  has  had 
the  opportunity  of  using  large  numbers  of  animals  or 
plants  under  close  statistical  observation  realizes  what 
a  complex  study  individuals  are.  In  some  cases  of  hy- 
brids known  to  carry  the  blood  lines  of  three  or  more 
distinct  races  or  species  we  are  able  to  analyze  the  ani- 
mal or  plant.  We  can  often  trace  each  characteristic 
to  one  parental  stock  or  to  another.  Analysis  means 
the  separation  of  a  unit  into  its  component  parts.  Syn- 
thesis on  the  other  hand  means  the  placing  together  of 


Theory  and  Practice  in  Breeding.  173 

the  parts  and  constructing  a  unit.  The  first  great 
problem  is :  ''How  can  the  desirable  characteristics  of 
two  or  more  parental  kinds  be  picked  out  and  blended 
into  a  group  of  progeny  and  at  the  same  time  discard 
other  characters  which  we  do  not  desire."  Another 
problem :  ''How  so  to  blend  two  kinds  as  to  create  en- 
tirely new  valuable  characteristics  or  to  create  increased 
values  in  existing  characteristics.'' 

When  two  differing  organisms  are  united  and  all  of 
the  dominant  and  atavic  elements  of  each  are  thrown 
together  the  most  complex  synthesis  takes  place.  There 
is  ample  proof  that  all  characteristics  of  both  ancestors 
are  inherited,  though  only  a  part  of  the  mass  of  these 
inherited  characters  can  be  dominant,  effective  and  vis- 
ible in  any  one  progeny.  There  is  not  room  for  all; 
some  must  remain  as  dormant  atavic  ekments. 

The  complexity  of  characteristics  of  each  of  the 
parents  may  crudely  be  likened  to  a  rope  of  10,000 
threads,  of  a  thousand  kinds  of  colors,  each  of  a  dif- 
ferent strength,  no  twO'  colors  or  strengths  represented 
by  the  same  relative  number  of  threads.  The  rope  thus 
becomes  a  complex  whole,  made  up  of  characteristic 
parts ;  and  a  large  group  of  similar  ropes  becomes  the 
variety,  breed  or  species. 

A  river  may  further  serve  to  illustrate  that  the  liv- 
ing organismi  is  made  up  of  very  many  active  correlated 
forces  acting  and  reacting  upon  each  other  and  upon 
their  surroundings.  Place  in  the  flowing  water  10,000 
chemical  compounds  in  varying  proportions.  There 
will  at  once  be  formed  many  stable  compounds,  some  of 
which  will  remain  in  solution  and  may  be  termed  active 
or  dorninant;  others  will  be  insoluble  and  will  sink  as 
insoluble  or  atavic  elements  to  the  bottom  of  the  river, 
but  always  there  and  ready  to  arise  when  their  affinities 
are  better  satisfied  by  some  passing  substance  than  those 
which  hold  down  the  elemental  substances.  If  we  could 
now  divide  the  broad  stream  into  many  streams  with 
narrow  islands  between,  it  would  roughly  represent  the 
race  blood  or  the  species  blood  divided  into  as  many  in- 


2/4  Breeding  Plants  and  Anhnals. 

m 

dividuals.  Let  each  minute  stream  have  its  own  envir- 
onment and  run  over  a  bed  with  varying  heat,  the  flow- 
ing mass  absorbing  new  chemical  compounds  from  its 
substratum  of  characteristic  soil.  New  qualities  would 
be  added  and  others  cieated  by  the  modifications  of  the 
old  by  the  new,  and  some  characteristic  qualities  would 
be  dropped.  Now  let  us  assume  that  two  rivers  have 
been  found,  each  coming  from  its  own  country.  Let  the 
second  river  hold  as  complex  a  load  of  chemicals  as  the 
first,  yet  difi'erent.  Let  it  be  divided  up  as  are  the  blood 
streams  in  individuals  and  give  each  of  these  a  long 
time  to  be  influenced  by  its  own  local  environment.  Let 
Nature  cause  two  of  these  streams  to  flow  together  or 
let  man  pick  out  two  which  especially  meet  his  desires 
or  needs  and  run  their  waters  together. 

When  the  blood  lines  of  tw^o  species  or  widely  dif- 
fering varities  are  brought  together  by  hybridizing  their 
individuals  the  dynamic  forces,  are  in  a  wonderful  fer- 
ment. All  characteristics  from  the  parents  cannot  be- 
come dominant  in  this  one  individual ;  there  is  room 
for  only  one  correlated  set  which  wall  act  in  a  harmoni- 
ous w^hole.  There  is  high  art  in  the  correlating  powders 
of  heredity,  in  its  building  up  the  individual.  Some 
characteristics  must  sink  to  the  bottom  and  become 
atavic.  Where  the  same  characteristics  of  size,  color, 
strength  or  mental  habit  occur  in  both  parents  the 
progeny  will  usually  have  the  same  qualities  dominat- 
ing, but  wdiere  one  is  tall  and  the  other  short,  one  light 
and  the  other  dark  in  color,  one  early-maturing  and  the 
other  late  maturing,  the  conflict  leaves  dominant  in  the 
progeny  the  characteristic  of  one  parent  and  perchance 
another  characteristic  from  another  parent.  In  one 
case  all  of  the  characteristics  of  one  parent  may  be 
dominant  in  one  progeny,  wdiile  another  of  the  progeny 
may  be  a  composite.  The  possible  combinations  of 
dominants  in  a  radical  hybrid,  as  between  Jerseys  and 
Short-horns,  between  macaroni  wheat  and  bread  wheat 


Theory  and  Practice  in  Breeding.  175 

or  between  Italians  and  Germans,  are  almost  number- 
less. 

A  new  hybrid,  especially  if  of  an  open  pollenated 
plant  species  or  an  animal  species,  is  usually  very  unsta- 
ble and  the  internal  war  for  supremacy  continues.  The 
dominants  formed  up  into  groups,  held  together  by 
tlieir  affinities,  in  competition  with  eager  atavic  ele- 
ments, ever  under  the  influence  of  environment  and  the 
readjusting  relationships  of  atavic  as  well  as  dominant 
characteristics,  are  here  unstable.  Natural  or  arti- 
ficial selection  is  required  to  discard  the  chaff  and  se- 
lect the  grain.  We  can  enforce  uniformity,  if  for  gen- 
eration after  generation  we  can  select  for  one  purpose 
especially  if  we  can  find  the  rare  individuals  in  which 
the  desirable  group  of  dominants  hold  tenaciously  to- 
gether in  a  stable  way.  Soon  the  dominants  in  the  new 
combination  become  strongly  affiliated ;  the  atavics  are 
held  down  with  a  hand  strengthened  by  time  and  the 
fraternity  group  becomes  a  stable  family,  breed  or 
species.  There  is  great  variation  in  the  persistency 
of  variation  among  the  individuals,  from  which  var- 
ieties are  formed  by  close  pollenation,  as  in  wheat  or 
barley,  and  especially  in  the  interbreeding  groups  of 
open  pollenated  plants  or  animals.  Some  stocks  of 
plants  or  animals  will  settle  down  to  uniformity  in  a 
short  time,  possibly  with  a  certain  select  class  of  domi- 
nants in  the  ascendency.  In  other  cases  variation  con- 
tinues with  persistency,  even  where  the  selection  is 
mider  systematic  guidance  by  man. 

The  object  of  breeding  is  to  obtain  the  best  founda- 
tion blood  lines  and  from  them  secure  by  simple  selec- 
tion or  by  hybridizing  followed  by  selection  of  fraternity 
groups  which  will  so  combine  the  better  qualities  as 
dominants  into  stable  economic  units  of  enlarged  value 
per  plant  or  per  acre  or  per  animal  or  per  herd,  or 
through  hybridizing  to  increase  in  value  or  quality, 
some  of  the  existing  charaxteristics,  or  by  combination 
create  new  characters  of  larq^er  value  and  then  collect 


lyb  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

these  as  units  into  nicely  correlated  forms  with  large 
economic  or  artistic  value. 

It  is  not  strange  that  Nature  creates  very  many 
mediocre  and  undesirable  forms  for  each  superior  one 
which  springs  from  her  complicated  laboratory.  To 
rise  above  the  level,  the  individual  or  the  interfertiliz- 
ing  group,  which  we  call  species,  breed  or  variety,  must 
be  fortunate  enough  to  have  in  its  make-up  in  a  perma- 
nently stable  equilibrium  a  large  number  of  dominant 
characteristics,  each  of  which  is  exceptional  in  strength- 
ening the  desired  general  unit  in  its  artistic  or  economic 
value.  Possibly  the  law  of  chance  operates.  We  get 
a  Messenger  with  his  combination  of  strong  parts  pro- 
jected with  high  efficiency  into  his  progeny  only  once 
out  of  thousands  of  times.  It  is  not  strange  that  the 
use  of  large  numbers  is  a  first  necessity  in  forcing  the 
improvement  of  a  variety  or  breed  or  for  securing  the 
best  out  of  a  complex  and  for  the  most  part  unstable 
mass  of  a  new  hybrid.  The  stubborn  fact  that  there  is 
only  one  individual  of  special  breeding  power  out  of 
many  thousands  is  of  such  paramount  significance  that 
we  can  well  afford  to  encourage  theoretical  philosophiz- 
ing, a  priori  reasoning  or  drawing  of  conclusions  from 
too  few  data.  Edison  has  been  greatly  assisted  in  his 
practical  experiments  by  his  theoretical  studies.  The 
deeper  philosophies  of  mathematics  are  constantly  add- 
ing new  possibilities  to  engineering. 

These  illustrations  are  given  to  show  in  part  that 
the  theory  of  breeding  should  receive  more  scientific 
stddy.  Practical  men  should  encourage  investigation 
along  these  general  lines.  Our  ideas  are  dim  and  our 
halting  language  inadequate  to  deal  with  breeding. 
Breeding  does  not  all  consist  in  one  man  securing  a  few 
plienomenal  animals,  with  which  he  wins  prizes  and 
which  yield  him  a  snug  fortune.  Some  of  our  most 
practical  and  most  successful  breeders  may  be  narrow 
in  relation  to  the  general  subject.  It  is  unfortunate 
that  so  little  thought  is  put  into  these  theoretical  ques- 


Theory  and  Practice  in  Breeding.  177 

tions  and  that  so  little  theoretical  formal  experimenta- 
tion has  been  done  in  breeding. 

During  recent  years  there  has  been  a  movement 
into  studying  these  subjects  statistically.  Plants  and 
small  animals,  which  can  be '^grown  in  large  numbers 
with  little  expense  and  under  control  conditions  alike 
for  each  and  all,  serve  for  making  records  for  deter- 
mining facts. 

Mendel,  a  German  monk,  thus  used  peas  and 
worked  out  some  most  interesting  facts.  His  results, 
now  known  as  the  Mendelion  Laws,  were  very  surpris- 
ing. He  found  that  where  tw^o  varieties  differed  in 
some  strong  dominant,  as  one  pea  white  and  another 
pea  blue,  one  pea  wrinkled  and  the  other  pea  smooth, 
that  the  progeny  was  in  the  first  case  part  pure  white, 
part  pure  blue  and  in  the  second  case  part  pure  mixed, 
or  unstable  in  their  heredity.  That  is,  in  the  self-poUen- 
ated  species,  a  characteristic  long  inbred  so  as  to  be 
strongly  dominant  in  the  plant  form  would  not  readily 
coalesce  or  mix  with  an  opposite  character.  In  the  sec- 
ond year  part  of  the  pea  hybrids  were  part  white  and 
part  blue,  and  those  peas  wdiich  followed  one  or  the 
other  of  the  original  parent,when  planted  and  their  flor- 
ets allowed  tO'  self- fertilize,. produced  progeny  which  all 
followed  the  white,  the  blue,  the  wrinkled  or  the 
smooth-seeded  parent,  as  the  case  might  be.  It  was 
as  if  the  dominant  Roman  nose  followed  the  family 
through  succeeding  generations  where  there  is  miarry- 
ir.g  into  another  race.  A  portion  of  the  seeds,  however, 
retained  the  mixed  dominance  of  their  hybrid  character 
but  these  also  generation  after  generation  partly  broke 
up  into  pure  white,  pure  blue,  pure  wrinkled  and 
pure  smooth  forms  until  nearly  the  whole  race  had 
reverted  back  in  its  individual  characteristics  to  the 
several  original  forms.  And  stranger  still,  this  break- 
ing up  seems  in  some  species  to  occur  in  mathematical 
proportions. 

Mendel  thus  worked  out  facts  which  may  be  worth 
much  in  breeding.  It  may  assist  in  combining  as  dom- 


^7^  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

inants  the  excellencies  of  two  or  more  different  forms, 
tlioiigh  as  a  direct  help  in  breeding  its  value  has  not 
yet  been  developed  except  in  a  general  way.  But  it  ha.; 
done  vastly  more  than  that.^  It  has  set  many  scientists 
at  work  making  statistical  investigations  in  the  licre- 
dity  of  living  things  and  at  devising  better  statistical 
ui-ethods  of  breeding.  Mendel  separated  out  a  few 
characters  which  v/ere  not  only  strongly  dominant,  but 
w^ere  not  too  closely  interwoven  with  other  character- 
istics of  the  species.  This  gave  him  the  opportunity  of 
studying  some  fundamental  laws. 

But  in  the  ordinary  economic  plant  or  animal  the 
desired  dominant  characteristics  are  interwoven  with 
a  maze  of  other  characteristics.  The  economic  unit 
per  acre  or  per  head  is  not  made  up  of  easily  separable 
dominant  units,  all  of  which  may  be  studied.  We  are 
all  too  prone  to  look  at  the  few  characteristics  most 
easily  seen  or  measured  rather  than  to  judge  broadly  of 
the  value  of  the  whole.  The  value  of  the  variety  or 
breed  depends  upon  how  the  parts  are  blended  into  the 
artistic  or  economic  w'hole. 

Breeding  is  w^orthy  of  our  brightest  minds,  as  are 
transportation,  manufacture  or  diplomacy.  It  seems 
reasonable  to  believe  that  extensive  effort  will  develop 
this  subject  as  rapidly  as  it  has  developed  mechanics, 
theories,  our  inadequate  nomenclature,  our  stumbling 
electricity  on  general  business  system.  Our  weak 
language  relating  to  the  complex  concepts  of  heredity 
and  our  temerity  to  enter  these  subjects  are  beginning 
to  take  on  improvements.  Alany  of  our  college  grad- 
uates should  broadly  prepare  themselves  to  study  the 
philosophy  of  breeding  and  to  be  leaders  in  the  creation 
of  new  values  in  plants  and  animals.  Country  breeder's 
associations  with  young  men  employed  by  the  Govern- 
ment and  State  to  keep  their  records  and  otherwise 
assist  would  be  a  great  school  in  which  to  train  leaders 
in  the  theory  and  practice  of  breeding. 

These  articles  have  covered  such  a  long  period  of 


Theory  and  Practice  in  Breeding.  179 

time  that  a  brief  summary  and  general  statement  seem 
necessary  in  closing. 

Breeders  may  be  divided  into  three  classes :  pri- 
vate breeders,  firms  and  associations,  and  public  enter- 
prises. In  most  cases  plant  breeders  require  a  long 
time  to  wait  until  the  newly-created  varieties  are  ready 
for  distribution  and  bring  results  to  the  breeder ;  and 
with  some  species  the  necessary  equipment  and  expert 
services  necessary  for  succesful  breeding  are  quite  be- 
yond the  ordinary,  individual  farmer  or  horticulturist. 
Every  observing  man  who  grows  field,  orchard,  garden 
or  greenhouse  crops,  and  under  whose  observation  are 
reviewed  annually  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thous- 
ands of  individual  plants,  has  the  chance  of  securing 
occasional  individuals  of  great  value  as  foundation  par- 
ents from  which  to  make  new  varieties.  For  example, 
many  of  our  varieties  of  apples  come  from  rare  trees 
found  growing  in  fence  corners  or  other  places  where 
seeds  have  been  accidentally  deposited.  And  in  other 
plants  propagated  by  cuttings,  where  the  entire  variety 
is  all  from  a  single  seed,  the  plants  being  sexually  mere 
parts  of  the  original  plant,  each  on  a  separate  set  of 
roots,  growers  have  an  exceptional  opportunity  to  or- 
iginate new  varieties  by  finding  a  new  plant  and  propa- 
gating it.  The  character  of  the  variety  is  here  fixed  in 
the  original  plant.  This  class  presents  the  simplest 
kind  of  breeding,  though  in  many  species  a  long  time 
is  necessary  to  fnu't  and  test  the  varieties  so  as  to  select 
only  the  blood  of  the  very  best  mother  varieties.  The 
planting  of  seeds,  the  hybridizing  to  create  new  vari- 
ations, the  long  time  of  waiting,  the  selection  of  mother 
plants,  the  testing  of  their  progeny  in  one  or  more 
localities,  the  necessary  systematic  efforts  in  the  intro- 
duction of  valuable  kinds,  make  of  breeding  even  this 
class  of  plants  a  complicated  business.  Even  here  large 
firms,  or  better  still  governmental  control  or  govern- 
mental co-operation  with  associations,  are  necessary  to 
encourage  this  breeding  on  a   sufficiently  .large   scale 


i8o  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals, 

to  insure  that  the  country  may  enjoy  the  possible  in- 
crease of  weahh  from  this  source. 

In  the  case  of  the  self-pollented  plants  like  wheat, 
barley  and  peas,  where  it  is  practicable  to  originate  a 
new  variety  from  a  single  mother  plant  by  seed  pro- 
duction, private  breeders  also  find  a  field  of  operation. 
But  even  here  there  is  a  grave  question  as  to  whether 
private  breeders  and  seed  and  nursery  firms  will  enter 
upon  plant  improvement  on  a  sufficiently  large  scale 
to  really  produce  the  improvements  the  times  demand. 
The  large  wealth  at  stake  makes  it  imperative  that  there 
be  organized  adequate  systems  of  breeding  these  crops 
that  the  lo  or  more  per  cent  possible  to  add  to  the  an- 
nual yields  may  be  secured.  Breeding  these  crops  has 
passed  beyond  the  experimental  stage.  The  investment 
annually  of  large  sums  of  money  by  the  nation  and  the 
State  is  fully  warranted  on  the  basis  of  each  dollar 
expended  bringing  back  from  ten  to  one  hundred  fold. 
Breeding  the  open-pollenated  species  reproduced 
by  seeds  is  in  some  ways  even  more  complicated,  and 
only  a  few  species  will  be  bred  on  an  adequate  scale 
by  private  parties.  Corn  stands  out  as  the  one  species 
of  this  class  which  is  being  and  must  be  bred  by  many 
practical  farmers  and  seed  corn  specialists.  But  even 
here  the  creation  of  specific  varieties  for  particular 
uses,  as  for  manufacturing  starch,  will  probably  not  be 
pressed  to  its  limit  except  for  restricted  areas.  Even 
in  corn  it  is  improbable  that  private  initiative  will  carry 
ih^.  improvement  forward  on  that  extensive  scale  which 
will  result  in  varieties  especially  suited  to  each  soil  type 
in  each  climate  region.  In  any  event  public  institutions 
may  have  large  function  in  testing  varieties  of  corn,  so 
as  to  compare  the  yields  of  value  per  acre  of  one  va- 
riety with  another  in  each  general  region  thus  to  assist 
both  growers  and  breeders  in  a  knowledge  of  which 
varieties  thrive  best  in  each  locality.  The  breeding  of 
corn  has  gained  a  foothold  through  the  efforts  of  Dr. 
Hopkins,  Prof.  Holden,  Mr.  Shamel  and  others  which 
assures  to  it  large  efforts.     The  demand  for  seed  corn 


Theory  and  Practice  in  Breeding.  i8i 

at  remunerative  prices  will  give  corn  breeding  that 
continuous  and  large  attention,  both  from  private 
breeders  and  from  public  institutions,  which  will  in- 
sure its  rapid  development.  No  plant  in  the  world  has 
better  prospects  of  earning  a  distinguished  set  of  ped- 
igrees suited  to  all  climes  and  all  soils  where  corn  will 
grow.    It  will  be  bred  a  king. 

Progress  in  animal  breeding,  while  considerable  in 
the  aggregate,  is  slow  in  comparison  with  what  it 
might  be.  The  efforts  wnth  most  breeders  are  with 
small  numbers  and  cover  relatively  short  periods  of 
time.  The  best  fraternity  groups  or  families  produced 
by  the  most  effective  breeders  are  not  usually  perpet- 
uated as  effectivly  as  they  should  be.  Under  the  dom- 
inance of  methods  too  exclusively  artistic,  fashion  oft- 
en works  economic  injury  fairly  extensive  in  character 
and  vast  in  scope,  along  with  its  good  achievements. 
The  loss  of  the  larger  part  of  the  Morgan  horse  blood, 
of  part  of  the  butter-producing  capacity  of  Short-horn 
cattle  and  of  part  of  the  fecundity  of  Poland-China 
swine  represents  a  sufficient  sum  to  have  paid  for  much 
additional  expenditure  in  breeding  these  classes. 

Another  extensive  source  of  loss  is  in  the  expense 
of  unsuccessful  experiments  now  carried  on  by  private 
breeders  of  plants  and  animals.  This  of  course  is  small 
in  the  aggregate  as  compared  with  the  possible  values 
arising  from  breeding  operations  which  would  add 
even  i  per  cent  or  forty  million  dollars  annually,  to  the 
worth  of  our  plant  and  animal  products.  | 

It  would  seem  that  only  its  difffcult  nature  causes 
conservatism  in  breeding,  while  mechanical  and  elec- 
trical engineering  are  making  such  strides  as  they  are. 
Wider  interest,  more  extensive  co-operation,  increased 
expenditures,  more  investigation  into  the  theory  and  in- 
creased markets  for  pedigreed  plants  and  annuals  are 
all  needed. 

The  whole  field  is  in  that  stage  of  development 
where  very  great  progress  is  coming  into  view.  Pre- 
liminary  experiments   in  breed   and   variety   improve- 


i  82  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

nient  and  in  breed  and  variety  formation  have  given 
important  results;  for  example,  the  American  trotting 
horse,  the  Poland-China  hog,  the  Burbank  potato,  the 
Wealthy  apple,  Minnesota  No.  169  wheat,  cotton  re- 
sistant to  root  rot  and  flax  resistant  to  flax  wilt.  In  the 
plant  world  varieties  and  species  long  successfully 
grown  are  being  hybridized  and  large  numbers  of 
forms  greatly  varied  in  character  are  being  formed 
from  which  many  useful  varieties  may  be  selected. 

The  workers  m  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture,  the  State  experiment  stations,  seed  and 
nursery  firms  and  private  breeders  are  all  rapidly  gain- 
ing the  experience,  developing  the  methods  and  secur- 
ing the  necessary  equipment  with  which  to  hybridize, 
select  and  develop  the  new  forms  being  made  possible. 
I'Yirthermore,  broad  plans  for  co-operation  are  being 
projected  and  are  slowly  but  surely  coming  into  oper- 
ation. Not  only  are  successful  methods  of  plant  breed- 
ing being  put  into  operation,  but  the  distribution  of 
varieties  is  the  subject  of  investigation.  The  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture  and  a  group  of  State 
experiment  stations  in  the  Middle  Northwest  in  co- 
operation have  demonstrated  those  valuable  new  varie- 
ties of  wheat,  oats,  barley  and  corn  originated  by  pub- 
lic funds  may  be  given  the  widest  distribution,  brought 
into  the  most  general  use  by  selling  them,  and  at  com- 
mercial seed  prices. 

While  the  free  distribution  of  seeds  or  even  the 
sale  of  pedigreed  seeds  and  plants  at  low  prices  lessens 
the  busine'^s  of  commerical  seed  and  plant  grcwing, 
and  merchandising  in  seeds  and  nursery  stocks,  selling 
highly  bred  seeds  and  plants  by  State  experiment  sta- 
tions at  rather  high  prices  is  an  advantage  to  the  com- 
mercial seed  and  plant  business.  It  places  the  new  va- 
rieties on  a  commercial  basis.  By  bringing  forward 
new  varieties  it  enlarges  the  basis  of  materials  in  which 
the  seed  merchant  and  the  nurseryman  deal.  By  means 
of  long  tests  under  statistical  records  the  experiment 
stations  accredit  to  the  farmers  many  superior  new  va- 


Theory  and  Practice  in  Breeding.  183 

rictics  for  wliich  there  grows  up  a  permanent  demand 
which  the  trade  may  supply. 

Professor  J.  L.  Budd  of  the  Iowa  Agricultural  Col- 
lege,'^ now  emeritus  professor  of  horticulture — a  num- 
ber of  whose  students  have  become  prominent  plant 
breeders — and  a  pioneer  breeder,  performed  many  val- 
uable experiments;  His  apple,  plum,  rose  and  other 
work  is  bearing  fruitage.  But  the  most  valuable  thing 
he  did  was  to  help  to  work  out  the  relations  of  the  pub- 
lic improver  of  plants  and  the  commercial  seedsman 
and  nurseryman.  By  selling  from  the  Iowa  Experi- 
ment Station  Russian  fruit  trees  at  prices  lower  than 
is  possible  for  commercial  growers  to  produce  and  sell 
them  lie  demonstrated  the  futility  of  a  State  experi- 
ment station  ignoring  the  commercial  agencies  for  dis- 
tributing seeds  and  plants.  The  difficulties  he  met 
from  the  opposition  of  nurserymen  who  are  pure  bred 
tree  men  as  animal  breeders  are  pure  bred  animal  own- 
ers, and  the  opposition  the  seedsmen  have  given  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  in  its  free 
seed  distribution,  have  led  certain  experiment  stations 
in  co-operation  with  the  United  States  Government  to 
e:;periment  on  methods  of  distributing  seeds  on  a  com- 
mercial basis. 

By  starting  out  new  varieties  at  a  high  price  they 
are  taken  up  by  seed  and  plant  growers  and  dealers 
and  pushed  to  the  front.  The  margin  of  profits  to  the 
seed-grower  or  dealer,  established  by  the  experiment 
station  starting  the  sale  of  new  varieties  at  a  relatively 
high  price,  serves  as  the  motive  power  in  bringing  the 
new  variety  to  the  attention  of  every  farmer  in  the 
State.  "Money  talks''  and  "makes  the  mare  go." 
Strong  margins  of  profit  set  in  motion  the  wheels  of 
commercial  distribution,  and  keeps  them  greased  until 
a  still  better  variety  is  found,  yielding  to  the  grower  of 
pure  bred  seeds,  and  the  seed  dealer,  still  better  profits. 
Prof.  Budd  damned  his  Russian  apple  trees  with  faint 


*  Deceased. 


184  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

praise,  by  selling  them  at  the  nominal  price  of  10  cents 
apiece.  He  also  aroused  the  bitter  antagonism  of  the 
commercial  growers  of  nursery  stock.  Instead  of  con- 
sen^atively  waiting,  thoroughly  proving  which  varie- 
ties were  best  by  long- continued  &nd  thorough  trial,  he 
too  early  offered  his  new  importations  to  the  general 
farmer,  as  w^ell  as  to  nurserymen  who  were  experi- 
enced in  testing  new  varieties.  In  the'  end  the  most 
excellent  pioneer  work  done  for  Iowa  horticulture  was 
partly  neutralized  by  this  wrong  method  of  distribut- 
ing varieties  new  to  the  State.  And  Prof.  Budd  today 
is  not  accorded  nearly  the  credit  due  him  from  his 
State  because  he  was  over-zealous  in  distributing  al- 
most free  the  varieties  he  prejudged  were  of  great  val- 
ue to  the  people. 

When  an  experimenter  settles  down  to  the  fact  that 
there  is  only  one  really  first-class  variety  out  of  very 
many  which  is  worthy  of  distribution  and  that  the  one 
is  of  exceeding  great  value  he  is  ready  to  calmly  wait 
the  full  fruitage  of  evidence  which  will  give  him  the 
right  variety  and  the  statistical  evidence  with  which 
to  win  his  case  before  the  open  court  of  commercial 
use.  When  one  has  promising  new  varieties  of  wheat, 
flax,  barley,  oats,  millet,  alfalfa,  or,  perchance,  new- 
varieties  of  horticultural  species  which  promise  soon  to 
be  ready  to  make  conquests  for  commercial  supremacy, 
it  requires  the  German  power  to  calmly  wait  to  avoid 
prematurely  discharging  the  powder.  "A  few  things 
thoroughlv  well  done/''  only  varieties  sent  out  w^hich 
do  supersede  the  common  kinds  in  use,  form  the  only 
road  to  that  confidence  which  a  State  station  or  United 
States  Department  breeder  needs,  to  enable  him  to  give 
his  tested  varieties  a  good  hearing.  The  breeder  under 
State  or  Government  employ  who  builds  up  a  reputa- 
tion on  only  varieties  worthy  of  wide  commercial  use 
is  able  to  command  prices  which  will  place  his  new 
creations  at  once  in  the  strongest  current  of  commer- 
cial seed  growing  and  merchandising.  The  station  or 
Government  cares  little  for  the  initial  price  received; 


Theory  and  Practice  in  Breeding.  185 

it  seeks  the  widest  rise  of  the  new  variety  for  the  sake 
of  the  growers  and  for  the  general  good. 

Tlie  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  is 
rapidly  gaining  prestige  lost  by  the  long  period  of  weak 
methods  of  seed  and  plant  distribution.  It  is  effect- 
ively breeding  everything  from  the  microscopic  bac- 
terial partner  of  the  clovers  to  forest  trees.  But  its 
work  has  just  begun.  It  has  only  begun  to  chart  the 
virgin  field  in  plant  breeding.  It  has  led  the  way  and 
now  suggestions  coming  from  many  sides  of  the  Bur- 
eau of  Animal  Industry  join  the  procession. 

If  the  world  has  stores  of  domestic  or  easily  domes- 
ticated animal  life  which  we  should  study  in  its  native 
habitat,  and  which  we  should  bring  here  and  study, 
v/hat  is  to  hinder? 

As  our  central  Government  grows  stronger  and 
stronger,  that  it  may  cope  with  world  problems  and 
that  it  may  control  the  threatening  powers  within, 
Uncle  Sam  is  more  and  more  ready  to  lead  in  this  great 
co-operative  union,  w^here  the  nation,  the  States,  the 
lesser  organizations,  the  individuals,  all,  may  co-oper- 
ate to  mutual  benefit. 

The  word  Americanism  is  coming  more  and  more 
to  stand  for  true  co-operation  of  individual,  commun- 
ity, state  and  nation,  grouping  the  elements  of  thes.e 
four  classes  of  powers  into  whatever  co-operative  or- 
ganizations private  and  public  good  demands. 

The  legislative  and  the  executive  branches  of  the 
Government  in  their  foresightedness  are  reaching  out 
to  help  the  people.  Lest  this  help  be  more  paternal 
than  is  best  the  nation  and  the  States  may  need  to  re- 
vise their  plans.  Our  State  legislatures  are  not  so  far- 
seeing  as  is  the  national  Congress.  They  too  often 
have  not  so  much  the  spirit  of  co-operation  as  the  de- 
sire to  secure  paternal  assistance  from  the  Government. 
The  strength  of  the  States  need  not  weaken  with  the 
growth  of  nationalism.  That  the  States  are  many 
times  less  liberal  in  building  up  their  agriculture,  their 
harbors  and  other  internal  affairs  than  is  Congress  is 


1 86  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

no  doubt  a  temporary  phase  of  our  development.  The 
national  Government  is  taking  the  lead  in  promoting 
breeding  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  States  will  make 
it  a  co-operative,  not  a  paternal  work. 

The  study  of  the  foundation  stocks  of  animals  and 
plants,  and  especially  the  creation  of  newly-created 
forms,  are  ''long-time  propositions."  The  State  ex- 
periment stations  are  close  to  the  problems,  to  the 
actual  stocks  imder  development  and  in  use.  T?he  men 
who  are  to  be  the  students  of  life  histories  of  species, 
who  are  to  formulate  plans  for  breeding  and  to  direct 
the  work  must  be  so  situated  that  they  will  have  long 
tenures  of  office  beside  the  objects  with  which  they 
work.  In  ten  years  only  a  start  may  be  made.  Many 
of  the  plants  can  be  bred  at  the  stations  and  much  plant 
breeding  by  the  people  can  be  directed  and  assisted 
from  there.  Comparatively  little  animal  breeding  can 
be  done  on  these  public  properties.  To  make  possible 
the  use  of  the  requisite  large  numbers  of  animals  co- 
operation with  large  numbers  of  breeders  must  be  ar- 
ranged. It  is  not  likely  that  this  will  be  done  in  an 
adequate  way  unless  it  is  subsidized  by  public  co- 
operation. 

Expert  official  service  is  a  relatively  inexpen- 
sive form  of  assistance  and  probably  in  the  end  the 
most  effective  way  of  using  public  money  in  animal 
breeding.  Assistance  in  choosing  and  even  in  pur- 
chasing foundation  stock  might  be  admissible,  but  the 
ownership  of  the  young  breeding  animals  should  be 
left  in  the  regular  lines  of  commercial  production 
where  profits  will  push  their  dissemination  and  bring 
them  into  general  use.  The  introduction  of  blood 
from  foreign  countries,  conducting  experiments  on  the 
theory  of  breeding  and  the  education  of  all  the  people 
to  discern  and  appreciate  superior  varieties  and  breeds 
are  all  most  legitimate  forms  of  public  aid. 

Those  to  whom  the  proposed  public  expense  ap- 
pears large  should  devote  some  time  trying  to  com- 
prehend the  significance  of  the  nine  figures   required 


Theory  and  Practice  in  Breeding,  187 

to  designate  10  per  cent  of  the  $4,000,000,000,  worth 
of  plants  and  animals  annually  produced.  He  who 
doubts  the  practicability  of  increasing  the  product 
10  per  cent  or  even  increasing  it  i  per  cent  may  pro- 
perly say  that  the  possible  cost  of  extensive  Gover- 
mental  and  State  co-operation  represents  a  visionary 
sum  of  money. 

(i)  We  have  many  excellent  breeds  and  varieties 
to  serve  as  foundation  stocks,  and  more  may  be  im- 
ported. 

(2)  In  improving  a  superior  breed  or  variety  or 
in  forming  one  there  are  found  in  each  species,  breed 
or  variety  numerous  individuals '  which  excell  in  their 
individuality ;  and  among  these  there  is  an  occasional 
one  which  proves  superior  in  its  projected  efficiency 
when  used  as  parental  blood,  alone  or  in  blood  mix- 
tures with  other  parents  superior  in  breeding  power. 

(3)  By  hybridizing,  i.  e.  croosing  families,  breeds 
or  varieties,  or  even  species,  individuals  with  even 
greater  projected  breeding  efficiency  may  be  created, 
and  these  rare  individuals  may  be  used  singly  in 
some  species  of  plants,  and  in  other  species  of  plants 
and  in  animals  they  may  be  used  in  groups  in  forming 
more  valuable  varieties   and  breeds. 

(4)  Practical  methods  are  being  wrought  out  foi 
ferreting  out  from  among  their  fellows  the  occasion- 
al pure-bred  individual  and  the  still  less  frequent 
though  sometimes  superior  hybrid  individual  which 
will  serve  in  improving  or  forming  a  superior  breed 
or  variety. 

'  C5)  Fixing  the  character  of  new  families  or  new 
])reeds  and  new  varieties ;  gradually  improving  them ;  " 
testing  and  recording  and  thus  accrediting  the  ex- 
cellencies of  the  best  blood  in  each  and  multiply irtg 
them  and  securing  their  general  substitution  in  place 
of  less  valuable  forms  is  being  better  organized  into 
a  breeding  business, 

(6)  Theoretical  studies  by  practical  breeders,  by 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  by  the 


i88  Breeding  Plants  and  Animals. 

State  Agricultural  Experiment  Stations  and  Colleges, 
by  the  biological  laboratories,  all  federated  in  the  new 
American  Breeders'  Association,  promise  to  make 
clearer  the  theory  of  breeding. 

(7)  Valuable  new  varieties  and  breeds  originated 
at  public  expense  are  beginning  to  justify  the  expen- 
diture of  large  sums  of  Government  and  State  money 
in  breeding  experiments,  wisely,  effectively  and  eco- 
nomically conducted,  in  part  in  co-operation  with  pri- 
vate parties  and  with  associations. 

(8)  The  organization  of  wider  co-operation  in 
breeding,  already  exemplified  in  the  Funk  Bros.  Co., 
and  in  the  Minnesota,  North  Dakota,  South  Dakota, 
Iowa,  and  Wisconsin  Experiment  Stations  co-operat- 
ing in  breeding  field  crops  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  of  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  should  be  extended  as  rapidly  as 
men  can  be  trained  and  the  foundation  stocks  secured. 

(9)  Breeding  stations  and  schools  of  breeding 
should  be  established  in  connection  with  several  of  our 
p.gricultural  colleges  that  the  full  force  of  modem  sci- 
entific research  and  educational  method  may  be  di- 
rected into  building  up  our  plant  and  animal  forces. 

(10)  In  addition  to  the  money  expended  by  pri- 
vate enterprise  the  possible  tens  or  hundreds  of  milli- 
ons of  increase  in  plant  and  animal  products  through 
better  blood  warrant  the  expenditure  of  liberal  sums 
of  public  funds.  While  people  of  wealth  are  endow- 
ing institutions  for  research  in  natural  evolution  and 
other  phases  of  science  they  should  not  fail  to  consider 
the  claims  of  the  science  of  enforced  evolution  which 
has  a  relation  to  the  improvement  as  well  as  the  wealth 
of  man. 

(11)  '  To  displace  scrub  and  low-grade  stock  and 
scrub  and  low-grade  seeds  ^and  plants  with  families 
which  have  earned  the  highest  places  in  contests,  to 
produce  net  value  per  herd  aiid  per  acre,  is  the  worthy 
object  which  should  command  money,  leadership  and 
co-operative  organized  effort  long  continued. 


Theory  and  Practice  in  Breeding,  189 

The  writer  has  not  sought  to  arouse  controversy, 
but  earnest  thought.  Jn  future  months  and  years  the 
course  of  pubHc  money  in  the  promotion  of  breecHng, 
the  development  of  different  forms  of  co-operative  or- 
ganizations and  the  rising  faith  based  upon  the  sub- 
stantial improvements  which  one  by  one  come  forward 
in  plant  and  animal  development  will  be  shown. 

The  American  Breeders'  Association  with  commit- 
tees of  specialists  to  encourage  the  study  of  many  sci- 
entific and  practical  problems  in  breeding  and  to  pro- 
mote breeding  generally  has  a  most  promising  field. 
That  organization  has  just  begun  its  campaign  for 
memberships.  It  proposes  to  include  in  its  annual  re- 
ports along  with  the  papers  and  discussions  a  directory 
of  breeders  and  of  scientists  and  others  interested  in 
the  problems  of  breeding.  The  membership  fee  of 
only  $1  per  annum  makes  it  impracticable  for  breeders 
to  keep  their  cards  out  of  the  directory  and  the  cam- 
paign now  on  by  the  general  membership  committee 
and  by  the  sub-committee  in  each  State  gives  promise 
of  a  very  large  membership.  Nothing  is  more  hopeful 
than  the  enthusiasm  and  the  faith  in  the  permanency 
of  the  American  Breeders'  Association  shown  by  a 
number  of  breeders  taking  life  memberships  at  $20. 
The  organization  of  the  association  marks  the  new  im- 
pulse in  the  movement  of  living  things. 


YE  16504 


3€577.' 


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